Wadi us-Salaam, which means "Valley of Peace", is an Islamic cemetery located in the holy city of Al-Najaf in Iraq. The cemetery covers an area of 601.16 hectares, and millions of people are buried here, making it the largest cemetery in the world. The city of Al-Najaf itself is one of the largest cities in Iraq with a population of almost 600,000. But the neighboring "city of the dead" conceals the bodies of millions of people and stretches for 10 km along the valley.
Wadi Us Salaam is also the only cemetery in the world where burials have been going on continuously for over 1400 years.
This cemetery is very important for the Shiites, they believe that the souls of all believing men and women are buried here, regardless of where their bodies are buried. Many prophets, kings, princes and sultans are buried in this cemetery, including the prophet Hud, the prophet Salih and also Prince Ali Ibn Abu Talib.
On Wadi Us-Salaam, there are the graves of many thinkers, scientists and major political figures, as well as ordinary Muslims from many countries - Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Lebanon. Many Shiites want to be here after death by all means.
More than five million people have already been buried there on an area of six square kilometers. If you just divide the area of the cemetery by the number of burials, you get about 1.2 square meters per person. But there are still roads, passages, fences, buildings and large mausoleums. So, on average, the grave will have less than 1 square meter. That is, burials are made almost close-by-side.
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The gravestones in the cemetery are made of baked bricks and plaster. Among the tombs can be found huge family crypts built by the local wealthy. Such crypts are crowned with domes. There are also underground crypts, to which stairs lead. The graves of the 1930s and 40s have their own styles - they rise up to 3 meters and have rounded tops that are visible from afar.
During the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi armed fighters often used the cemetery to ambush and attack enemy troops. Americans are not allowed to enter here, because there are too many winding streets and underground mausoleums. Therefore, the Iraqis attacked the enemy unexpectedly, and then easily hid among the graves, because they know these places like the back of their hand.
If the rebels hid in the narrow paths among the tombs, the military would mercilessly drive right over the graves with bulldozers. To this day, heaps of disfigured fences remain by the side of the road.
During its invasion of Iraq in 2003, as well as during the occupation, the American army did not hesitate to launch missile attacks on both the living and the dead - the largest cemetery in the world felt the desire of the United States to give democracy to Iraq.
The brutality that has swept Iraq since 2003 led to the expansion of the cemetery (up to about 40%). Every year since 2004, the cemetery has been growing, because Iraq is constantly at war - first with the Americans, then conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis began, and, finally, the rebels clashed with the Iraqi army in 2008. Thank God, in recent years, the rate of burials here has noticeably decreased.
In June 2010, UNESCO decided to include the Wadi Us-Salaam cemetery near the holy city of An-Najaf for Muslims around the world in the World Heritage Fund. For this, the UNESCO delegation visited Iraq, where this issue was discussed for two weeks.