We're in the city of Tulkan in Ecuador.

It's a cool, misty day, as it very often is in Tulkan.

And we are high up in the mountains, 9,000 feet, and just a quick hop from the border with

Colombia.

So raincoats on, hoods up, we're walking around the city.

And we come to an entrance of a labyrinth.

This labyrinth is made of green sculptures.

They're carved so finely they look like stone covered with moss.

But up close, you can see that they're alive.

This dense maze is created by lush green hedges.

An herbal, evergreen smell fills the air around you.

This isn't just some park.

This is a cemetery.

One so beautiful, its creator once said, it invites one to die.

I'm Dolan Thuris, and this is Atlas of Skira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today, we are taking you to a paradise for the dead.

The Jose Maria Azale Franco Guerrero Cemetery in Tulcan, Ecuador.

That story after this. It's December 1923, and a massive earthquake hits Tulkan. The earth shakes violently, 12 times in 24 hours, and the whole town is devastated by the

quake.

The church collapses, the military barracks are destroyed.

Some estimates say that more than 150 people were killed.

Hundreds were injured.

...