Hundreds of thousands of visitors will descend on Georgia this summer. The main draw will be the 1996 summer Olympic games, but visitors to the Peach State can also take in a whole host of supernatural sites -- from haunted antebellum mansions to Georgia's own version of Stonehenge.

Atlanta:

Many of the founders of Atlanta lie beneath a canopy of majestic oak and magnolia branches in the city's oldest public cemetery. In 1850, city officials purchased six wooded acres on the outskirts of the city to be used as a cemetery. It was named Oakland after the street that ran along its main entrance. The remains of many of those buried elsewhere were moved to the cemetery, which soon became the standard final resting place for the city's most prominent citizens.

The peculiar tastes of some more eccentric Atlantans are reflected in the myriad elaborate monuments, headstones, and mausoleums that fill Oakland. A large stone memorial decorated with Egyptian symbols stands guard over one family's plot; a mausoleum built to look like a gothic castle complete with gargoyles and stained glass windows -- contains Me remains of another family. In one of the cemetery's newer and more conventional plots lie the remains of Margaret Mitchell, the author of "Gone With the Wind."

But it is near the center of the cemetery that the restless dead occasionally make their presence known to visitors.

General W. T. Sherman's capture of Atlanta was a turning point in the Civil War. The siege on the city was, like the war itself, brutal and bloody. In the heat of battle, thousands of soldiers were buried in shallow pits. The ridges formed by these makeshift graves ringed the city after the war. In 1872, the bodies of 3,000 to 4,600 military dead were reburied in Oakland Cemetery.

Among the sea of small slabs marking the tombs lie graves of unidentified soldiers. A granite memorial to the unknown Confederate dead, based on the Lion of Lucerne, guards that section of the cemetery. The memorial is a massive statue of a wounded lion lying on a furled Confederate flag.

It is here, near the memorial, that visitors repeatedly have reported hearing a somber roll call: a voice not of this world calling out the forgotten names of those who died.

The cemetery, now ringed by a brick wall, lies in the heart of Atlanta. The city's downtown skyscrapers are visible from many spots in the cemetery. Oakland Cemetery is open to the public seven days a week, and tours are offered on a regular basis.

Buford

In Buford, a rural town on the fringes of metropolitan Atlanta, stands the "old telephone building," as it is known to residents. The brick, onestory building was built on the site of a house occupied by Jim Lights in the 1930s. Lights has long been dead and the building now houses offices, but the ghost of the previous owner is still hanging around.

For years, workers in the building have reported ghostly manifestations sounds of footsteps when no one is there, slamming doors, office equipment that turns itself off and on, and a number of unexplainable noises.

Lights has been seen by at least two witnesses who gave the same description of an old man of medium height with a full gray beard. Lights reportedly died in the house. Some longtime Buford residents remember stories regarding Lights's hoarded wealth, which he refused to entrust to a bank. Some Buford residents think Lights buried the money on the property and still returns periodically to check on it.

Savannah

Savannah, on the Atlantic coast, is Georgia's oldest city and home to many of the state's most noted haunted sites.

Antebellum mansions draped in Spanish moss, the town's many statue-filled squares, countless bed and breakfasts in grand old homes, and a historic, bustling business district make Savannah one of the South's most popular vacation destinations, as well as a favorite location for Hollywood filmmakers looking for a picturesque location that fits the image of the traditional South.

The city's long history has also given Savannah a wealth of legends -- many associated with eighteenthcentury pirates who visited Savannah's bustling port. The aptly named Pirates House restaurant, which flies the skull and crossbones above its front doors, and the Shrimp Factory are two of Savannah's most popular haunted eateries. Guests at the Kehoe House bed and breakfast have also been known to encounter ghosts.

The Kehoe House was built in 1892 by iron magnate William Kehoe. It has been used for various purposes since the family sold the home in 1930. For a time, it was a funeral parlor. More recently, the luxurious three-story home was turned into an opulent bed and breakfast. More than half-a-dozen guests have reported ghostly encounters since then. All the incidents have occurred in two rooms: 201 and 203. Some patrons have reported seeing the image of a young girl dressed in servant's clothes, while others have seen the apparition of an elderly lady wearing a shroud over her head.

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah also received a burst of notoriety after being featured in John Berendt's bestselling book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Legend recounts that the cemetery is on the site of a colonial plantation. The plantation's owner was hosting a grand party, the type for which Savannah is still known, when the house caught on fire in the middle of dinner. Host and guests simply picked up their plates and utensils and transferred the party to the mansion's grounds. As the mansion burned to its foundation in the background, the carousers ended their meal by smashing wine glasses against a tree.

Visitors to the cemetery have reported that the sounds of the revelers, as well as of the smashing of glassware, can still be heard on certain nights.

Dalton

Just north of Dalton, Georgia, lies an unnamed, almostforgotten cemetery. Most of the graves in the cemetery date back to the Civil War era and contain the remains of slaves__hence it is known as the "old black cemetery."

And while its graves are rarely visited by the living, a phantom has been repeatedly sighted by those who do come to the graveyard. Several sightings of the phantom, described as a man of medium height wearing a hooded garment, were reported in the 1970s. The phantom is reported to have a chalky white face and eyes that glow like hot coals. As new subdivisions sprang up in the vicinity of the old cemetery, unusual poltergeistlike activities began to be reported in the homes nearest the cemetery.

Rock Oven

Along the winding Altamah River in south Georgia lies Rock Oven, a series of caves and limestone formations that once was the dwelling place of a secluded Indian tribe. The area is now widely known for being home to unusual phenomena.

Rock Oven received its unusual name because of the charred soot that covers the roofs of some of the caves. The soot is one of the still-visible reminders that the area was once the home to the Tama, a now-extinct Indian tribe about which little is known. Other evidence of Indian habitation, such as pottery shards and arrowheads, occasionally surface in the area, as do strange reports of mysterious happenings: spook lights, disembodied voices, and sightings of spectral Indians dancing around campfires.

Athens

Athens, Georgia, about 60 miles east of Atlanta, is home to the University of Georgia and many historic homes, some of them reportedly haunted.

The Taylor-Grady home, according to many witnesses, is visited every Christmas by an unidentified Confederate soldier and a female companion.

The 100-year-old Thomas-Carithers House, now home to a sorority, has a ghost legend associated with one of its rooms. A bride-to-be retreated to the room and hung herself after being left at the altar. She still occasionally makes appearances. According to legend, any woman assigned the room becomes engaged before she leaves college.

Even the University of Georgia's president's office, located in the historic Lustrat House, is home to a ghost. This ghost, one Major Morris, is known to take a seat near the fireplace on chilly evenings. His apparition has been cited by dozens of visitors.

Near the Lustrat House lies a marker for an oak tree and a curious legend. The marker denotes the spot on which once stood a majestic oak associated with the life of Robert Toombs, a lawyer, planter, and statesman who served in Congress and the Senate.

As a young man, Toombs attended Franklin College, which would later become the University of Georgia. He was dismissed from the school in 1828 for boisterous behavior, but returned at the next commencement day and delivered a speech so eloquent that the entire audience of the commencement exercise left the ceremony to listen. He spoke under the sheltering branches of the great oak. Legend says that on the day Toombs died in 1885, the great oak at which he first came to prominence was struck by lightning. The dead tree finally collapsed in 1908 and was cut into small fragments that have been passed down from generation to generation of University of Georgia alumni ever since. A marker was erected on the site of the old oak by the state's general assembly in 1985.

Elberton

One of Georgia's most unusual sites has relatively modern origins. This is the Georgia Guidestones, the monolithic formation near Elberton, a small community about 75 miles northeast of Atlanta. The Guidestones are a series of granite pillars 29 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 28 tons. They form an X pattern. The stones are astronomically aligned so that the rising and setting sun shines through a "window" in the center stone. Etched on the Guidestones are 10 commandments or religious tracts written in 12 languages, including Sanskrit and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The Guidestones were designed and paid for by an unidentified man using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian in 1970 or 1980 (there are conflicting reports). Who Christian was and why he had the Guidestones erected remains the subject of much speculation.

The site upon which the formation was built is near Al-yeh-li A lo-Hee -- the center of the universe according to Cherokee Indian legends. No one is sure if the Guidestones were purposefully built near the Cherokee location, but occult powers, mysterious noises, and strange rituals have been attributed to both sites.

Wes Swietek, a FATE stringer, works as a newspaper editor and freelance writer in Georgia.

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