Corpse Paths Worldwide
In the Arenal area of Costa Rica NASA surveys detected straight paths running considerable distances through the mountainous rainforest. Upon closer examination these routes were found to date from AD500-1200 and had been constructed as Corpse paths, along which bodies were carried to burial.
A straight Viking cult or Corpse road at Rosaring, Uppland, Sweden, was unearthed by archaeologists. The body of the dead Viking chieftains were drawn along it in a ceremonial wagon to the grave site. The Netherlands had the Doodwegen or Spokenwegen, the deathroads or ghostroads, converging on medieval cemeteries, some surviving in straight section fragments to this day.
During several dynasties of the imperial China, the pathway to the burial mound of an emperor or a high dignitary would be lined with the statues of real and fantastic animals and of the civil and military officials, and would be known as the shendao (spirit way) At major imperial mausolea, such as Ming Xiaoling in Nanjing or the Ming Dynasty Tombs near Beijing, the spirit way could be several hundreds of meters, sometimes over a kilometer, long.
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Famous quotes containing the words corpse and/or paths:
“Last night I fled until I came
To streets where leaking casements dripped
Stale lamplight from the corpse of flame;
A nervous window bled.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“O Master, let me walk with thee
In lowly paths of service free;
Tell me thy secret; help me bear
The strain of toil, the fret of care;”
—Washington Gladden (1836–1918)