Check out these famous cemeteries

Even if you don't believe in ghosts, walking through a graveyard can be a little spooky - especially in autumn as the trees lose their leaves, flowers wither away and light fades in the late afternoon.

But cemeteries can make fascinating destinations. Sometimes a few words on a tombstone can suggest a whole life story; sometimes you can find a famous name, a beautiful work of art, or landscaping worthy of a botanical garden.

"Many people find great peace and solace in visiting cemeteries even if their own relatives are not buried there," said Janet Heywood, trustee for the Association for Gravestone Studies. "Others come to cemeteries to enjoy the history and beauty of the monuments and gravestones and/or to experience the outdoors, the plantings, the landscapes of the garden cemeteries of the nation."

Some host tours about their history or landscapes, and some offer themed events around Halloween.

Boston: The Old Granary Burying Ground was established in 1660, but it is most famous for its connections to the Revolutionary War more than a century later. Here you'll find the graves of Paul Revere, who famously rode a horse in 1775 to deliver warnings about the British Army; victims of the 1770 Boston Massacre; and Declaration of Independence signers John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Located on Tremont Street near the Boston Common and Park Street subway station; http://www.cityofboston.gov/FreedomTrail/granary.asp.

New York: Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery dates to 1838 and was named a National Historic Landmark for its art, architecture, landscaping and history. Interred here are: Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, along with many ordinary Americans, from Civil War soldiers to victims of the Sept. 11th attacks. The cemetery offers tours on a regular basis but also has Halloween events with tales of murder and mayhem on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at 1 p.m. http://www.green-wood.com.

Indianapolis: Crown Hill Cemetery's notables range from President Benjamin Harrison to bank robber John Dillinger. But many visitors enjoy the grounds as much as the history. At 555 acres, Crown Hill is the third-largest non-governmental cemetery in the country, with 25 miles of roads and an 842-foot hill that affords a 360-degree panoramic view of the entire Indianapolis skyline. Special events include "Music of the Night" concerts with "Skeletons in the Closet" tours on Oct. 23 and 24 at 8 p.m. and on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. http://www.crownhillhf.org.

Cleveland: Perhaps the most impressive site at Lake View Cemetery is the James A. Garfield Monument honoring the U.S. president who was assassinated in 1881. The monument includes a 180-foot tower, a marble statue, and mosaics depicting his life and death. Other memorials to famous men at Lake View include a white 65-foot obelisk marking John D. Rockefeller's grave, and a monument to lawman Eliot Ness, whose ashes were scattered in Wade Pond. On Nov. 1 at 3 p.m., Lake View offers All Saints Day tours about some of the cemetery's famous residents. http://www.lakeviewcemetery.com.

New Orleans: If you're visiting St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, you may want to bring an offering for the famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Visitors often leave cigarettes, Mardi Gras beads, flowers, candles and even money on her white Greek Revival tomb. Other notable graveyards here include Lake Lawn Cemetery and in the Garden District, Lafayette Cemetery. The Web site http://www.nolacemeteries.com has links and information on three dozen cemeteries around the city, and tour information is available at http://www.tourneworleans.com and http://www.saveourcemeteries.org.

Los Angeles: Star power is the ticket to immortality here. At Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, you can pay your respects to Marilyn Monroe, Burt Lancaster, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, Frank Zappa, Rodney Dangerfield and Truman Capote. Those spending eternity at the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills cemetery include Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Buster Keaton, Liberace, Stan Laurel, Gene Autry and David Carradine.

Of course the most recent celebrity burial to grab headlines took place just outside L.A., when Michael Jackson was buried in the Great Mausoleum at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale. You can enter the mausoleum, but you can't see Jackson's tomb. You can wander the grounds, but Forest Lawn doesn't disclose gravesite locations, so do your homework first on Web sites such as http://www.seeing-stars.com/Buried.

Another L.A. graveyard, Hollywood Forever, is more tourist-friendly: They sell maps to the stars' graves and sometimes even show movies. Hollywood Forever's denizens include Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille and Johnny Ramone.

Paris: Phantoms of famed souls, some doomed to early death, fill Père Lachaise cemetery: Frederic Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and Edith Piaf - and of course Jim Morrison. Mystery still shrouds the death of the lead singer of The Doors, who was just 27 when he died in Paris in 1971.