A history of Iraq in coffins:
STORIES OF hereditary undertakers from the world’s largest graveyard

Sons of the Graveyard

Wadi Al-Salam in Iraq is the world’s largest and oldest cemetery, housing over 5 million graves. For the residents of Najaf, the city cradling the graveyard, that amounts to roughly five dead for every living person. Ancient burial traditions, established over 1,400 years ago, are still practiced here. All this places Wadi al-Salam onto UNESCO’s Heritage List as a tentative applicant.

Belief has it that Abraham initially bought a plot here and declared it to be a piece of heaven on earth. From this plot, Wadi al-Salam grew. Several prophets and notables lie in its vast expanse. Legend says that those buried here will have Imam Ali’s (the fourth Sunni caliph and the first Shia Imam) protection while making the journey into the afterworld.

In recent decades, Wadi al-Salam bulged with every new conflict that shook Iraq: the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, the US/UK-led sanctions, the American invasion, the Sunni-Shia sectarian war, Al Qaeda, ISIS…

Through it all, the dynasties of undertakers of Wadi al-Salam were more faithful to recording the stream of casualties than the official statistics offices, which either could not or would not account for Iraq’s lost souls. Undertakers like Habib and Faris, whose family business dates back to the Ottoman Empire, tell the history of Iraq in coffins.