Plague Graves Reached Six Feet

The idea that graves need to be six feet deep goes back to the Great Plague of London in 1665. As the disease swept England, London's lord mayor and aldermen ordered that all graves be at least six feet deep because they believed deeper burials would inhibit infection. The rule eventually disappeared in England and its colonies, and many modern American jurisdictions require only 18 inches of soil above a casket or burial vault, allowing a grave to be roughly four feet deep.

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