Through the iron gate, past the lock that keeps casual visitors out, the tombs rise in tight rows like a city built for the dead, with street names, addresses, the kind of architectural detail that makes you forget you are standing in a cemetery at all.
The guide leads you through narrow passages where the plaster is peeling, where the X marks on certain tombs tell their own story about visitors who came looking for favors from spirits who may or may not be listening.
The most famous tomb belongs to a woman whose name has been whispered in this city for over a century, a voodoo queen whose influence shaped everything from courtrooms to kitchen remedies…