South Park Street Cemetery

Eight acres of obelisks, pyramids and Grecian urns under a canopy of old trees: around 1,600 colonial-era graves, opened in 1767 as one of the earliest cemeteries anywhere built outside a churchyard. Banyan roots have wrapped the masonry until stone and tree are hard to tell apart, and the noise of Park Street drops away a few steps past the gate. The orientalist Sir William Jones lies here, and Rose Aylmer. Entry is about ₹25; mornings and late afternoons give the best light.

Park Street's traffic on one side of the wall, complete stillness on the other