Wadi Al-Salaam, The largest cemetery in the world
Wadi Al-Salaam means Valley of Peace is an Islamic cemetery, located in the Shia holy city of Najaf, Iraq. It is the largest cemetery in the world. The cemetery covers 1,485.5 acres and contains some 5,00,000 bodies and attracts millions of pilgrims annually. According to an undertaker at the cemetery, each crypt can hold up to 50 bodies. The burial plots are controlled by Marja'. Shia tradition holds that Abraham bought land in Wadi-us-Salaam and that Ali said the Wadi was a part of heaven.
Daily burials have been on going for over 1,400 years and the site is on the Tentative List of UNESCO's World Heritage sites. Burials in Najaf have been documented as early as the Parthian and Sassanid eras and ancient Mesopotamian cities often had similar cemeteries, where there was an accumulation of tombs. It is estimated that during the Iraq War about 200 to 250 corpses were buried there daily, however, in 2010 this number had decreased to less than 100. Approximately 500,000 new bodies are interred in the cemetery annually. This figure is an increase on the approximately 20,000 bodies, primarily from Iran, that used to be interred annually in the early 20th century. Most Iraqi and many Iranian Shi'ites have a relative buried in the cemetery.
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