Eyup Cemetery - Istanbul, Turkey
Posted by: 
Torgut
N 41° 03.217 E 028° 56.121
35T E 662638 N 4546513
This cemetery is located in the European side of Istanbul, taking a considerably sized ground uphill.
Waymark Code: WMJT1J
Location: Türkiye
Date Posted: 12/27/2013
Views: 7
The layout of this cemetery makes it very hard to estimate the number of graves, as it's a maze of trails uphill, leading to different groups of tombs. It must have at least 10.000 graves. It is located in the district with the same name, Eyup.
From Wikipedia:
(
visit link)
"The cemetery was very popular by Ottoman people, who wanted to be buried next to the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (576–circa 672 or 674), (Ottoman Turkish: Ebu Eyyûb el-Ensarî aka Turkish: Eyüp Sultan). A close companion of Prophet Muhammad, he died during a raid against the Byzantine Empire and wanted to be buried as close as possible to the city walls. After the Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, a tomb was constructed above his grave and a mosque, called today the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, was built in his honor. From that time on, the area now known as Eyüp has become sacred, and many prominent Ottoman people requested burial in proximity of Abu Ayyub.
The Eyüp Cemetery is situated on the western bank of the Golden Horn just outside of the historic Walls of Constantinople (today Istanbul). It stretches between the Golden Horn's shore up to Karyagdi Slope, and further to Edirnekapi. Road construction works and nationalization around Golden Horn did great damage to the graves.
One of the most interesting graves are of the executioners' in the Ottoman Empire, who were in official service. They were not allowed to be buried in public cemeteries. A separate burial ground, called the "Executioner Cemetery" (Turkish: Cellat Mezarkigi), existed on the Karyagdi Hill aside the Eyüp Cemetery. Their burial took place only in two cemeteries in Istanbul, and this secretly in the night. The headstones were blank without any name and date in order to avoid a retaliation by the relatives of the executed person. Unfortunately, only a few executioner graves survived up to date."