IRAQI TANK GRAVEYARD

yannarthusbertrand2

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jdraiders

jdraiders

SmileDarling

Kiwi Nomad

Iraq's iron graveyard

Amid the desert’s howling winds and forsaken dunes rests an iron ruin – the Iraqi tank graveyard. The graveyard, near Al Jahrah, Kuwait in the Rheris Valley is one of many timeless reminders of the devastating outcome of war, both to humans and to the environment. Tanks and other wreckage left behind by defeated troops during the war remained on the battlefield.

The tanks were collected into 'tank graveyards' like this one, north west of Jahra. This area is full of hundreds of tanks, trucks, artillery pieces and other heaps of rusted & busted metal. They’re not just pieces of metal; in some cases, they’re coffins, relics and tombs to those killed while serving their country. The U.S. doesn’t want to bring them home because it costs less to let them rot rather than transport them back, refurbish them, and redeploy them.

LIVING WITH THE DEAD: NAVOTAS CEMETARY

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Keep quit, I'm sleeping...

Manila's poor have sought refuge in some public cemeteries around the capital, with poverty driving them to live with the dead. Navotas, north of Manila, Philippines is a such a poverty-stricken place; people live in an 'apartment-style cemetary', and trust me, you won't find a penthouse anywhere!

People in this predominantly Catholic country in Asia flock to cemeteries and memorial parks every November 1st to honor the departed, commonly known as All Saints' Day. Millions of commuters visit cemeteries and families in their home provinces on this day, certainly disturbing the cemetary's permanent residents.

See also:
THE COFFINS OF SAGADA
Wādī al-Salām: THE VALLEY OF PEACE

THE CITY OF DEATH

You'll need a GPS to find your way around this cemetary...

This is my second post on interesting cemetaries. (See: THE COFFINS OF SAGADA). I came across these pics on Beyond the Invisible.

Wādī al-Salām in Najaf, is the largest Islamic cemetery and one of the largest cemeteries in the world. It covers an area of six square kilometers and holds an estimated five million bodies. Millions of Muslims over the centuries have been brought here for burial from all parts of the world. It is called both 'The Valley of Peace' and 'The City of Death'.

The trade involving the transportation of dead bodies from far off areas has been operated for centuries. When the war started in 1980, Saddam banned corpses trafficking. After his fall corpses trafficking, resumed, reviving the local economy with a profitable 100 funerals a day.

The corpse traffic is organized and regulated by the Health Departments Customs that collects duty on the corpses and keeps watch to prevent epidemics.

THE COFFINS OF SAGADA

Hang in there!

The residents of Sagada in the Philippines, have devised a unique burial ritual. The diseased are placed in coffins and put into caves or risen to hang on cliffs. The coffins are carved by the elderly before they die; if they are too ill or weak their son or other close relative will do it for them. They are buried in the fetal position and often involves breaking bones to fit into the coffins. In some caves hundreds of coffins are lined up.

It is said that the residents believed that the higher your body is laid, the closer you are to heaven. This method also protects the coffins from earthquakes and floods. It is unsure exactly how they attempted to place the coffins that high; it is possible that they might have used ropes to lower the coffins down the cliffs or used timber scaffolding to raise the coffin high up.

Unfortunately tourists are not supervised in this area, and they often take bones as souvenirs. If you do visit these caves, make sure you get a guide as some of the caves are hard to find and the roads can be tricky to navigate.

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