It is already the world’s biggest cemetery, the final resting resting place of some five million souls but it’s growing all the time.
With gravestones stretching out as far as the eye can see, Wadi Al-Salaam, which translates as Valley of Peace, is an ancient Islamic cemetery near the holy city Shiite city of Najaf.
The site is located close to the shrine of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam and fourth Caliph and as a result nearly all Iraq’s Shi’a muslim population request to be buried there.
An estimated 500,000 additional bodies are buried at Wadi Al-Salaam every year, however in recent weeks the figure has been even higher due to victims of the country’s bitter civil war.
