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.

Here is some information about interesting cemeteries — including Crown Hill in Indianapolis.

BOSTON: The Old Granary Burying Ground was established in 1660, but it is most famous for its connections to the War of Independence more than a century later. Here you’ll find the graves of Paul Revere; Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave believed to the be the first African-American killed in the war; and Declaration of Independence signers John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Visit www.city ofboston.gov/FreedomTrail/granary.asp.

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. From Green-Wood’s highest point, you can see the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan across New York Harbor and even spot the Statue of Liberty. Visit www.green-wood.com.

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 and Eli Lilly, founder of the pharmaceutical company. But many visitors enjoy the grounds as much as the history. At 555 acres, Crown Hill is the third-largest non-governmental cemetery in the country, with 25 miles of roads and an 842-foot hill that affords a 360-degree panoramic view of the entire Indianapolis skyline. Founded in 1863 on the site of a former tree farm and nursery, the cemetery also offers beautiful fall foliage with 4,000 trees representing 100 species. Special events include “Music of the Night” concerts and “Skeletons in the Closet” tours at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Nov. 1 (tickets, 317-920-4165). Visit www.crownhillhf.org.

CLEVELAND: Perhaps the most impressive site at Lake View Cemetery is the James A. Garfield Monument, honoring the U.S. president who was assassinated in 1881. The monument includes a 180-foot tower, a marble statue and mosaics depicting his life and death. The upper balcony provides a view of the Cleveland skyline and Lake Erie. Other memorials to famous men at Lake View include a white 65-foot obelisk marking John D. Rockefeller’s grave, and a monument to lawman Eliot Ness, whose ashes were scattered in Wade Pond. Lake View opened in 1869, modeled after the so-called garden cemeteries of England and France. Visit www.lakeviewcemetery.com.

NEW ORLEANS: If you’re visiting St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, 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 above-ground tombs to ensure that the graves are not disturbed by floods. Other notable graveyards are Lake Lawn and Lafayette cemeteries. Visit www.nolacemeteries.com, www.tourneworleans.com and www.saveourcemeteries.org.

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.

Of course, 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.

Instead, you watch a 10-minute show about the mausoleum’s stained-glass replica of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” Visitors also get 10 minutes to look at other monuments, crypts and niches in the mausoleum, including reproductions of Michelangelo works. But you can’t stray from the two hallways leading to the stained glass, and when your time is up, you’re escorted out. You can wander the grounds, but Forest Lawn doesn’t disclose gravesite locations.

Another L.A. graveyard, Hollywood Forever, which is next to Paramount Studios, is a more tourist-friendly cemetery. It sells maps to the stars’ graves and sometimes even shows movies. Hollywood Forever’s denizens include Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille and Johnny Ramone.

Sue Manning and Mary Foster of the Associated Press contributed to this story.