Valley of the Tomb


The Valley of the Tomb is the site of Napoleon's tomb on the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean where he was buried following his death in exile on May 5, 1821. The valley had been called the Sane Valley but Napoleon himself had taken walks there, and referred to it as the Valley of the Geraniums.
Napoleon didn't expect to be buried on Saint Helena, but in the case that he was to be, his request was to "have me buried in the shade of the willows where I used to rest on the way to see you at Hutt’s Gate, near the fountain where they go to fetch my water every day". He was buried with full military honours as a general. The full British garrison of 3,000 men lined the cortège route with arms reversed. French General Tristan de Montholon requested that the tomb be engraved simply with "NAPOLEON" and his dates of birth and death, but the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, refused and insisted that "Bonaparte" be added. With this impasse, the tomb slab was left blank.
The French government of Louis Philippe I requested that Napoleon's remains be repatriated to France, and on October 15 1840 his body was exhumed and reburied at the Invalides in Paris in an event known as the Retour des cendres. In 1854, the French government under Napoleon III negotiated to purchase the valley of the tomb and Longwood House.

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