| Karacaahmet Mezarlığı | |
|---|---|
 Old gravestones in Karacaahmet Cemetery | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | Mid-14th century |
| Location | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Coordinates | 41°00′40″N 29°01′34″E / 41.01111°N 29.02611°E |
| Type | Public |
| Owned by | Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality |
| Size | 750 acres (3.0 km2) |
| No. 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, on the Asian side of Istanbul. Karacaahmet cemetery is the oldest and largest in Istanbul at 750 acres (3.0 km2), and the largest burial ground in Turkey by number of interred.[1]
The cemetery was named after a warrior companion of Orhan, the second Ottoman sultan and is believed to have been founded in the mid-14th century. Karacaahmet Cemetery, which hosts many bird species, looks like a forest with trees such as cypress, plane tree, oak, laurel, hackberry, and various other plants. The burial ground is covered by high cypress trees.[2]
As a 700-year-old burial ground of historical importance, Karacaahmet Cemetery was declared a natural protected area and national historical landmark site in 1991, in accordance with the decision of the Istanbul Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board. According to this decision, the cemetery area can only be used for burial of the dead, the cemetery cannot be removed or used as a park area in any way.
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 total number of burials is not known precisely, because no records were kept in the past, but it is estimated in millions. Because the burial registers of the Istanbul Cemeteries Directorate started to be kept only after 1937.
The shrine of Karaca Ahmet Sultan, a 13th-century physician and saint of Bektashis, a tariqah 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.