Wadi al-Salam: World's largest graveyard that looks like a living city

Mint

28-05-2025

A video shared by Indian travel influencer Ankita Kumar, known by her Instagram handle monkey.inc, has brought renewed attention to the world's largest cemetery — Wadi Al-Salam, or the 'Valley of Peace' - located in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. In the striking video, a sprawling sea of beige box-like structures fills the frame, resembling an urban skyline. This video opens to show a vast, tightly packed landscape that, at first glance, resembles a dense urban settlement — rows upon rows of boxy, beige structures crammed closely together under a clear blue sky. But a closer look reveals that it's not a residential area at all — it's a graveyard,' she shared with her followers.
What appears to be a labyrinthine cityscape is, in fact, a necropolis of monumental scale — the final resting place of over six million people, and one of the most sacred sites in the Shia Muslim world.
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Located in Najaf, one of Islam's holiest cities, Wadi Al-Salam spans more than 917 hectares, or over 1,700 football fields, making it the largest burial ground in the world, a title formally recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records. The cemetery occupies nearly 13 per cent of Najaf's land and is expanding steadily, with a 2021 Reuters report noting that it is growing at twice its usual rate.
Wadi Al-Salam is deeply significant both culturally and spiritually. According to UNESCO, it is home to the graves of dozens of prophets, scientists, kings and royals, some dating back to antiquity. The cemetery's origins precede the Middle Ages, and among those buried here are rulers of the Al-Hira kingdom, leaders from the Al-Sassani era, and sultans and princes from historic Islamic dynasties such as the Hamdania, Fatimia, Al-Buwayhyia, Saffawayia, Qajar, and Jalairiyah.
Central to its religious importance is the tomb of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammad and a revered figure in Shia Islam. His burial here elevates the site to a place of global pilgrimage. Every year, nearly 50,000 people from across the Shia Muslim world are laid to rest in Wadi Al-Salam.
UNESCO describes the site as a 'unique example of a cultural tradition' and a 'traditional method of land use'. Its vast expanse of tombs and mausoleums stands as a testament to centuries of religious devotion, architectural tradition, and funerary practice.
From above, the cemetery appears almost surreal. Rows of beige stone structures, tightly packed and uniform, give the illusion of a densely populated city — an impression vividly illustrated in Kumar's viral video. On the ground, it feels even more like a maze. The cemetery features a mix of lower graves dug directly into the earth and high graves, also known as towers, contributing to its architectural density and disorienting scale.
Despite its spiritual and historical grandeur, burial in Wadi Al-Salam remains relatively affordable. A report by AFP noted that the cost of digging a grave is about $100, while tombstones typically range between $170 and $200.