If you ever find yourself traveling to Georgia in the US and choose to fly into Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, you might notice two peculiar grey rectangles on one of the runways.

These rectangles aren't merely strange patches of tarmac, as many passengers might think - they are actually the graves of two individuals who passed away in the late 1800s.

So why do these graves remain at Georgia's second largest airport?

Located at the edge of runway 10 and 28, the graves belong to Catherine and Richard Dotson, the original owners of the land on which the airport was constructed.

Born in 1779, they farmed the land together, which was then known as Cherokee Hills. They were married for 50 years until Catherine's death in 1877.

An airport in the US contains the graves of two people who died in the late 1800s (Getty Stock Image)

Richard passed away seven years later in 1884 and was laid to rest beside his wife in the family cemetery, which included about 100 graves, among them those of slaves, the Savannah Morning News reports.

After resting peacefully for several decades, World War II loomed, and in 1942, the US military required a location to land its B-24 'Liberators' and B-17 'Flying Fortresses'.

A lease agreement was reached between the federal government and the City of Savannah for 1,100 acres, now known as Savannah/Hilton Head International, as the airport's website explains.

This land ended up directly over the cemetery, leading to the relocation of almost all graves to another nearby cemetery.

However, the Dotson family did not agree to the relocation of Catherine and Richard's graves, believing it would have been their wish to remain on the land they had cultivated for most of their lives.

The resting places of Catherine and Richard Dotson remain at Savannah/Hilton Head Airport (Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport)

As a result, developers had no choice but to pave over the graves, constructing a runway atop them.

In respect, markers were placed to honor them.

The grave sites of Catherine and Richard, along with two beloved relatives, Daniel Hueston and John Dotson, remain the only ones in the world embedded in an active 9,350-foot runway, serving thousands of general and commercial aviation operations each year.

So, if you ever fly into Savannah, keep an eye out for this unique resting place.