London's Highgate Cemetery

London

After I said goodbye to Brooke, I had a few days in London with my parents and my aunt. One sunny day, my family decided to visit Highgate Cemetery. I have been to London a few times and still hadn't made it to Karl Marx's tomb, which is in Highgate's Eastern Cemetery.

Karl Marx was a German socialist revolutionary who is famous for his political theories about communism and socialism.  His two most famous works are The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.  He believed that there was a basic struggle between the ruling classes and the people who work (the proletariat). Eventually, this system would lead to the decline of capitalism and a new system would arise, called socialism.  I really respect Karl Marx for his ideas, even though they were not necessarily always correct. Even if you don't agree with Karl Marx's theories, he was a very important influence in the 20th century. He was buried in London, as he was a political exile. I was proud to pay my respects to him and his family at his tomb.

London

Visiting a cemetery where you do not have a personal connection to any of the deceased is a little strange. Highgate Cemetery is almost 200 years old. It was created as part of a plan to expand the number of places where people could bury their loved ones. Now it is very rare to be buried at Highgate, but it is (at least to me) fairly big. Since Karl Marx is buried there, many other famous political revolutionaries were also laid to rest there at Highgate as well.

Highgate Cemetary is a calm and peaceful place and very beautiful. However, I didn't feel comfortable posing for photos in front of any of the other graves. This picture is the closest I got to that. Even though my family is not religious, that does not mean that I do not respect those who have gone before me.  Every person's life is valuable and it is important to remember that every single one of us has been part of history.

London

As it turned out, our afternoon at Highgate was our last day in London. Still, more adventures awaited before we returned to New York City.

Have you ever visited a cemetery? What was it like?

No comments