Karacaahmet Cemetery

Karacaahmet Mezarlığı

Old gravestones in Karacaahmet Cemetery

Karacaahmet Cemetery

Details
Established Mid-14th century
Location Üsküdar, Istanbul
Country Turkey
Coordinates 41°00′40″N 29°01′34″E / 41.01111°N 29.02611°E / 41.01111; 29.02611Coordinates: 41°00′40″N 29°01′34″E / 41.01111°N 29.02611°E / 41.01111; 29.02611
Type Public
Owned by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Size 750 acres (3.0 km2)
Number of interments over 1 million
Website İBB Mezarlıklar Md. website

The Karacaahmet Cemetery (Turkish: Karacaahmet Mezarlığı) is a 700-year-old historic cemetery, located in Üsküdar, the Asian side of Istanbul. Karacaahmet cemetery is the oldest in Istanbul and at 750 acres (3.0 km2), the largest burial ground in Turkey.

The cemetery was named after a warrior companion of Orhan I, the second Ottoman sultan and is believed to have been founded in the mid-14th century. It is estimated that over a million people are interred in the non-profit cemetery.[1]

Karacaahmet Cemetery comprises 12 parcels, each dedicated to different religious groups. Many historical headstones can still be seen with inscriptions written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet, a version of the Arabic alphabet,. The burial ground is covered by high cypress trees.[2]

The shrine of Karaca Ahmet Sultan, a 13th-century physician and saint of Alevis, a sect of Islam, is situated within the cemetery.[3] There are also many other historical tombs and masjids, which is the Arabic word for mosques, built during the Ottoman period.

Notable burials

List in sorted order of the year of death.

Historical
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

Damage by Marmaray project

By June 2007, a dent of 1.5 m diameter and 4 m depth occurred close to the cemetery wall, which was caused by the excavation works in the tunnel for Marmaray project. It was reported that some graves were damaged.[7]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, December 08, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.