necropolis

American Heritage Dictionary:

ne·crop·o·lis

(nə-krŏp'ə-lĭs, nĕ-) pronunciation

n., pl., -lis·es, or -leis (-lās').
A cemetery, especially a large and elaborate one belonging to an ancient city.

[Greek nekropolis : nekro-, necro- + polis, city.]

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necropolis

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(Greek: "city of the dead") Extensive and elaborate burial place serving an ancient city. The locations of these cemeteries varied. Many in Egypt, such as the necropolis of western Thebes, were situated across the Nile River opposite the cities. In Greece and Rome a necropolis often lined the roads leading out of town. A necropolis was discovered in the 1940s under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

For more information on necropolis, visit Britannica.com.

Word Overheard by Answers.com:

necropolis

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As the song goes, they tried to "pave paradise and put up a parking lot," but when construction workers in Vatican City found a necropolis (ancient burial place) on the site, plans changed. Now, the area is opening as a tourist attraction.

"A well-preserved necropolis, discovered during the building of a parking garage in Vatican City, will open as a museum on Thursday, offering new insights into society and religion in imperial Rome. "

Link: IOL: Vatican to unveil Roman Necropolis

Posted October 11, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction:

necropolis

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1. A city of the dead; a large cemetery in ancient Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Carthage, etc.
2. An ancient or historic burial place.

necropolis of Tantalus, Sipylus; section (above)and plan (below)

Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology:

necropolis

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[MC]

An area of tombs, temples, and pathways which together amount to a ‘city of the dead’.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'necropolis'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier

For a list of words related to necropolis, see:

Burial and Funerals - necropolis: cemetery

Rhymes:

necropolis

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See words rhyming with "necropolis."

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

List of necropoleis

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For other meanings, see Necropolis (disambiguation).

Look up necropolis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

View of the Tyre Necropolis in Lebanon.

View of the Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia in Cerveteri, Italy.

Athlete tomb in the necropolis in Taranto, Italy.

Nepasa necropolis in Algeria.

Roknia necropolis in Algeria.

Necropolis de San Carlos Borromeo in Cuba, August 2007.

The Battle of Warsaw (1920) section of Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland.

Chaukundi necropolis near Karachi, Pakistan.

Part interior of the Chellah necropolis in Rabat, Morocco.

A necropolis (Greek plural: necropoleis; Latin plural: necropoles) is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead". Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term is chiefly used of burial grounds, near the centers of ancient civilizations, such as an abandoned city or town.

Grave field is a term for prehistoric burial grounds that do not include any above-ground structures or markers. These include row graves, urnfields, tumuli, etc.

List of examples

Albania

Hadrianopol ^[1]

Algeria

Nepasa
Roknia
Senâm^[2]

Austria

Australia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Varna Necropolis^[3]
Tuhovishta's Village Necropolis (Satovcha)

Tuhovishta's village necropolis.

Canada

Necropolis Cemetery - one of Toronto's oldest cemeteries
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (Montreal)

China

Colombia

Parque Arqueológico de San Agustin

Croatia

Stara Novalja

Cuba

Cyprus

Denmark

Assistens Cemetery

Egypt

France

Germany

Ohlsdorf Cemetery (Hamburg)
Oldendorfer Totenstatt - concentration of Neolithic megalith graves
Soderstorf Necropolis - site with above-ground graves from several periods of history

Indonesia

Imogiri

Iran

Naqsh-e Rustam Tombs Achaemenid Kings circa 500 BC

Latvia

Marupes Kapi

Lebanon

Tyre

Macedonia

Saint Erasmus (Ohrid)

Malaysia

Nirvana Memorial Park

Malta

Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni

Mexico

Morocco

Chellah^[5]

Pakistan

Makli Hill (Thatta)
Chaukundi Near (Karachi)

Another famous archeological site in Pakistan is called Mohenjo-daro, which literally means "Mound of the dead".

Peru

Paracas

Karaburma,
Krajčinovići, Bronze Age
Bukovac, Illyrian graveyards^[6]
Golubac, Illyrian graveyards
Jagodin-Mala, 4th century Christian necropolis
Cezava, medieval
Mokrin, Copper Age
Pesaca, medieval
Boljetin, medieval
Ravna, medieval
Ribnica, medieval
Porecka Reka, medieval
Hajducka Vodenica, prehistoric and medieval necropolis
Pirivoj, Roman necropolis

Slovenia

Neviodunum, Roman
Šempeter v Savinjski dolini, Roman

South Korea

Gyeongju

Spain

Son Ferrer, Bronze
Ibiza, Necropolis Puig des Molins; Phoenicien

Turkey

United Kingdom

Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey
London Necropolis railway station
London Necropolis Company
Highgate Cemetery
Glasgow Necropolis
Greek necropolis at West Norwood Cemetery, London
Southern Necropolis, Glasgow

United States

Uzbekistan

Bahoutdin Architectural Complex

Vatican City

Vatican Necropolis^[7]

References and notes

^ http://www.romansociety.org/fileadmin/documents/doc/Hadrianopolis.doc
^ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15590/15590-h/15590-h.htm#Pg_094
^ Ivanov, Ivan, M. Avramova. Varna Necropolis (Sofia, 2000)
^ Saqqara: City of the Dead
^ C. Michael Hogan, Chellah, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham, 2007
^ http://paralaza.blogspot.com/2007/08/central-tumulus-revealed-on-bronze-age.html
^ "The Vatican Necropolis - Scavi". http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi-map.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-02.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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Translations:

Necropolis

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - begravelsesplads

Nederlands (Dutch)
dodenstad, begraafplaats

Français (French)
n. - nécropole

Deutsch (German)
n. - Totenstadt, (großer) Friedhof

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - νεκρόπολη

Italiano (Italian)
necropoli

Português (Portuguese)
n. - necrópole (f)

Русский (Russian)
кладбище, некрополь

Español (Spanish)
n. - necrópolis, cementerio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - begravningsplats

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
大墓地, 古代的埋葬地

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 大墓地, 古代的埋葬地

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 대규모의 고동 묘지, 죽음의 도시(폐허)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 共同墓地, 死滅都市

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مدينه الموتى : مقبرة كبيرة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בית-קברות או מקום קבורה עתיק‬

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		American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Word Overheard by Answers.com. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article List of necropoleis. Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

	cemetery
	Wepwawet (in archaeology)
	Memphis (ancient city of Egypt)

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necropolis

ne·crop·o·lis

necropolis

necropolis

necropolis

necropolis

categories related to 'necropolis'

necropolis

List of necropoleis

List of examples

See also

References and notes

Necropolis