The first of the so-called "rural cemeteries" in America, the 174-acre Mount Auburn was designed in large part by early American horticulturist Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn and architect Jacob Bigelow, who were inspired by Paris' famous Père Lachaise. Dedicated in 1831, the cemetery is home to more than 700 tree varieties and some 10 miles of roads.

Also designed by Alexander Dearborn, the 275-acre Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood today serves as a cemetery, arboretum, and sculpture garden, thanks to famous works by sculptors Daniel Chester French and John Wilson.

Of no relation to the Sleepy Hollow of Washington Irving's Headless Horseman, this Transcendentalist-influenced burial ground was dedicated by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was later buried here, along with Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.

The Bronx's answer to Brooklyn's Green-Wood, Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1863 in a portion of then-rural Westchester that was later annexed to New York City. Named a National Historic Landmark in 2011, the 400-acre cemetery is home to more than 300,000 graves, some of which are elaborate mausoleums designed by architects like McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, and Carrère and Hastings.

Opened as the second major rural cemetery, after Mount Auburn, Laurel Hill was built in 74 acres of terraced hillside above the Schuylkill River. Here, elaborate tombs house some of Philadelphia's richest deceased citizens, but the cemetery also served as a public park before there were such things. In 1848, some 30,000 people entered the gates between the months of April and December.

Established during the Civil War on the grounds of an estate owned by a descendant of Martha Washington, Arlington National Cemetery has since become the most famous burial ground in the United States. Generally limited to distinguished military servicemembers, the cemetery is the final resting place of President John F. Kennedy, whose grave is marked with the "eternal flame."

The largest cemetery in the historic Georgia city of Savannah, the Bonaventure Cemetery gained fame in the 1997 film adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Dotted with weeping willows and bisected by a maze of wrought iron fences, the cemetery, in its public form, dates to 1868.

As a name, Graceland is most commonly associated with the Memphis mansion of rock pioneer Elvis Presley, but Chicago's high society knows it better as a preferred final resting place. The Graceland Cemetery, opened in 1860, is home to the Getty Crypt, designed by architect Louis Sullivan.

The oldest of New Orleans' many historic cemeteries, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was established in 1789 and now measures just one city block in the city's French Quarter. In the early years, everyone who was anyone was interred here, from Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau to architect Benjamin Latrobe.

Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, is sited on a hillside overlooking the city and Bay beyond. Over the years, it attracted many notable Californians, thanks to the Olmsted name, some of whom built elaborate crypts on what is now referred to as Millionaire's Row.

Established in 1937 as Northern California's Arlington, the Golden Gate National Cemetery now includes some 140,000 military graves, including that of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and 15 Medal of Honor winners.

Situated on a hillside that enjoys breathtaking views of the Pacific, the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery was established the 1880s. The cemetery is home to a landmark obelisk that commemorates those killed in the USS Bennington disaster in 1905.