The pyramid would sit on only eighteen acres of land, but would be able to hold the equivalent of 1,000 acres of bodies. Willson’s Giant Corpse Pyramid (the actual name was the impossibly cool Metropolitan Sepulchre) spoke to Londoners’ enthusiasm for Egyptian artifacts and architecture. Willson was even invited to present his idea before Parliament. And yet, the public did not embrace the concept. The Literary Gazette labeled the project a “monstrous piece of folly.” The public wanted garden cemeteries, they wanted to push the dead outside the cramped churchyards of central London and send
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