A 25-year-old Russian woman has been buried below a gravestone depicting her favourite iPhone, it emerged today.
Mourners in the oil-rich city of Ufa were amazed to see the huge tombstone erected over Rita Shameeva’s burial plot.
It is made from black basalt and bears the Apple symbol on the reverse, and a picture of Shameeva on the front.
It was erected by her grieving dad Rais Shameev two years after her death in January 2016 from an unknown cause, say reports.
He has not commented on the unusual memorial.
The grave even bares the Apple symbol
The five-foot high monument towers above other gravestones in the Yuzhnoye cemetery, and also has a QR code on the base.
Local headstone maker Ilgam Galliulin denied he was responsible for its design.
He said: “My father and I make monuments to order.
“But I saw this unusual one for the first time last week.”
Rita Shameeva was a lover of travel
Mourner Nikolay Yevdokimov told to newspaper ProUral: “I thought I was having hallucinations.
“How could an American smartphone suddenly appear at our cemetery?
“And such a huge one.
“I came closer and was surprised.
“I've seen many gravestones, but to make one in the form of [an] iPhone - this is the first time, to be honest."
The grave sits in the oil-rich city of Ufa in Russia
Little is known of Rita except that she was a keen traveller and had friends in Germany.
She also loved her smartphone.
The grave is believed to have been commissioned from a Siberian company which offers “death accessories”.
Designer Pavel Kalyuk built a similar headstone as an advertising gimmick.
He said: "We began to make monuments just to attract attention."
But after exhibiting his work at a funeral exhibition in Novosibirsk, orders came in for the bizarre tombstones.
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