It doesn't make for sunny postcard fodder, but seeing the place with your own eyes allows for personal and sacred memorials, and helps feeble imaginations understand the scale of the disaster.
The most famous of the tsunami sights are the boat in the house in Lampulo, and the 2500-tonne power-generator vessel that was carried 4km inland by a wave.
There are four mass graves in and around Banda Aceh where the dead in the province were buried. The largest site is Lambaro, located on the road to the airport, where 46,000 unidentified bodies were buried. Other grave sites include Meuraxa, Lhok Nga and Darusalam, where another 54,000 bodies were interred. Families who wish to mourn the loss of unlocated relatives choose one of the mass graves based on possible geographic proximity; they have no other evidence of where to lay their prayers.
