Photos by Lifestyles Editor Laura Parker Established in 1805, Pere Lachaise Cemetery is the most visited necropolis in the world. One hundred years earlier the cemetery was the site of a fierce battle between Communard insurgents and government troops. The rebels were eventually rounded up against a wall and shot, and were buried in a mass grave where they fell. NEW YORK (AP) — 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."

LEFT: A graveyard in downtown Boston, Mass. BOTTOM LEFT: Grave of composer Frederic Chopin at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. BOTTOM RIGHT: Resting place of The Doors' Jim Morrison, also in Pere Lachaise Some of the world’s most interesting cemeteries are in Boston, New York, Indianapolis, Cleveland, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Paris. Some host tours about their history or landscapes, and some offer themed events around Halloween.

PARIS: Phantoms of famed souls, some doomed to early death, fill Pere Lachaise cemetery, in a quiet, shady neighborhood on the eastern edge of Paris: 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. Some speculate he overdosed in a nightclub, others say he was found dead in his apartment bathtub. Although teenage girls no longer sing and dance while downing bottles of wine by his gravesite, it still attracts numerous tourists. They have to visit by day, though; overnight surveillance officers have replaced unruly nighttime visitors. Tourists Katie Baur, 34, a teacher from Tacoma, Wash., and her brother Mike Baur, 47, a longshoreman from Vancouver, Wash., appreciated the sense of mystique among the cemetery's winding, tree-lined paths and elaborate gravestones, many blackened with age. "It's far different from any type of cemetery we have in the States, with the Gothic look. It's creepy. It's mysterious," Katie Baur said.

BOSTON: The Old Granary Burying Ground was established in 1660, but it is most famous for its connections to the War of Independence. 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.

NEW YORK: Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery dates to 1838 and was named a National Historic Landmark for its art, architecture, landscaping and history. Its scenic winding paths are lined with trees and ponds, and its stone gates house a colony of green monk parakeets. The more than 560,000 permanent residents include 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. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

INDIANAPOLIS: Crown Hill Cemetery's notables range from Benjamin Harrison, U.S. president from 1889 to 1893, to bank robber John Dillinger. Others buried here include Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, who created the Little Orphan Annie character, and Eli Lilly, founder of the pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1863 on the site of a former tree farm and nursery, the cemetery also offers beautiful fall foliage with 4,000 trees from over 100 species.

CLEVELAND: Perhaps the most impressive site at Lake View Cemetery on Cleveland's east side is the James A. Garfield Monument honoring the U.S. president who was assassinated in 1881. Other memorials to famous men at Lake View include a white obelisk marking John D. Rockefeller's grave, and a monument to lawman Eliot Ness, whose ashes were scattered in Wade Pond.

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. St. Louis Cemetery is one of New Orleans' unique "Cities of the Dead," which boast remarkable architecture, history and traditions, including aboveground tombs to ensure that the graves are not be disturbed by floods. Other notable graveyards here include the spectacular Lake Lawn Cemetery and in the Garden District, Lafayette Cemetery.

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.

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.

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.