I love the graves in Athens. The First Cemetery was one of my favourite places to wander during the winter lockdown of 2020 and I went back when visiting the city again. There are some beautiful, as well as famous graves here, such as the tomb of Theodoros Kolokotronis.

The tradition of adding a photograph of the deceased, an update of the stone relief, adds a poignancy and curiosity about lives lived. The photos of people range over a century, with individuals frozen in the fashions of their day. It is an incredible journey into social history as well as a moving one.

The other graves are those of the ancients, known as grave stelai. Although beliefs around death changed in ancient Greece, from viewing it initially as the final fact of life evolving into beliefs around an afterlife and notions of rebirth, the grief of those left behind is apparent in the grave offerings and inscriptions. One of the most tender in the Classical period is when this final farewell was depicted on the grave itself by the shaking of hands between the person who had died, mostly seated, and those mourning. You can still see and share their loss.