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Dear readers, some names, dates and places of action in our material have been changed, because many data on this topic have not yet been declassified. A number of inaccuracies in the coverage of events were deliberately made.
At the end of the 18th century, the famous French Sinologist (Sinologist) Joseph de Guignes discovered in the ancient Chinese chronicles a record of the story of a Buddhist monk named Huishan, which surprised him greatly.
This April marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of a well-known person whose bones are still being washed - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
What makes historians carefully read the documents of 90 years ago? First of all, probably, the interest in those events that have not yet been sufficiently studied by specialists and covered in the press for the general public. But people have the right to know what happened to their compatriots on the same territory almost a century ago. Novosibirsk historian Vladimir Poznansky traced the development of the Siberian Holodomor using recently discovered archival sources. Lenin's call - "to save the proletarian center at any cost" - then provoked the death of many people from starvation, not only in the Ukrainian granary, in the Kuban, in Stavropol, but also in such a relatively prosperous area as Siberia.
Not all madmen are talented, but it is believed that the vast majority of talented people are usually slightly "with regards." And some are not even slightly, but rather thoroughly mournful heads, one might even say - who had very serious psychiatric diagnoses. Another thing is that the madness of these geniuses not only did no harm to anyone, but rather, on the contrary, enriched our world with amazing creations, which we, simple mortals not examined by psychiatrists, never cease to rejoice and be surprised at.
The day of September 11, 2001 became a kind of frontier in the public mind - the date when international terrorism entered a qualitatively new level of confrontation with socio-political institutions, which the so-called free world declares as the only correct ones. But the circumstances of this tragedy involuntarily lead to some "wrong" thoughts.
Traveling in the south or west of Ukraine, almost at every turn of the road you will certainly see a castle. Wrapped in morning mist, well preserved or even dilapidated, it will make your heart beat faster, reminding you of the chivalric novels you once read.
On that day, July 16, 1676, all of Paris was buzzing like a disturbed beehive. Still, it’s not every day that such a dangerous criminal is executed, and besides, a woman is also executed. And not just a woman, but one of the first beauties of the French kingdom.
About 12 thousand years ago, people staged a solemn funeral ritual in honor of a mysterious woman. The group filled her grave with a variety of objects. What is especially surprising, at the end of the ritual, they threw the remains of their food into the pit. Recently, traces of this burial were found in Israel in a cave, where other remains of ancient people were previously found.
Recent Research
Archaeologists have been busy researching the remains since the day they were discovered. At the moment, it has been possible to reconstruct the exact procedure required by the feast among the ancients. Scientists publish all discoveries in a journal dedicated to anthropology. As it turned out, the burial belongs to representatives of the Natufian culture, which was common in the Levant from 15 to 11 thousand years ago. 
The bearers of this culture lived in groups and practiced settled way of life even before the development of farming. This is their distinguishing feature - in those days, most people lived in teams of hunters and gatherers, wandering from place to place. The Natufians were also among the first to introduce organized funeral rituals. 
Distinctive feature of the find
So, Natufian culture was among the first to attach importance to burial rituals. Perhaps it was then that the structure of society began to become more complicated. This conclusion was reached by Leor Grosman from the University of Israel, who has been researching in the cave for eight years. The solemn ritual was associated with one of the longest funeral banquets ever discovered by scientists. In addition, he is one of the oldest. The banquet featured an impressive menu - fish, mountain gazelles, foxes, martens, snakes and hares, all of these animals were found at the burial site. The main dish was fried turtles - the remains of more than eighty animals were found, that is, about twenty kilograms of turtle meat were eaten. Apparently, there were a lot of people here, although it is difficult for scientists to determine their exact number. 
Six stages of preparation
As scientists have determined, the funeral ceremony required serious preparation, which took six well-planned stages. First of all, representatives of the Natufian culture dug a hole in the cave to make a grave. After that, they placed a limestone bowl in the grave, filling it with strange objects - for example, a deer horn, a piece of red ocher, several tortoise shells and pieces of chalk. Then it was all covered in ashes. Only after that the body of the woman was placed in the grave, and he was given an almost sitting position. The leg of a wild boar was placed under her head, and several more turtle shells were placed in the pelvis. In addition, other objects were located around the woman and on top of the body, unusual even for Natufian burials. Among them are sea shells and eagle feathers. The strangest find is a severed human leg, that is, a fragment of the remains of another person. The fifth stage was a feast, after which the remains of food were thrown into the grave. What seems to us to be rubbish was then perfectly appropriate - just to crush the body. At the sixth stage, the grave was covered with a large piece of limestone weighing 75 kilograms. This is the largest piece of limestone ever found in a Natufian burial. 
Mysteries of the mysterious burial
It turns out that the funeral ritual required considerable preparation. Hunting and gathering animals must have taken weeks. Scientists are still not clear why this woman received such an unusual grave, while in the neighborhood there are much more modest burials. Apparently, judging by her grave, she was a very important person. The objects placed around the body allude to the activities of a shaman who is unique to her community. In addition, her skeleton shows the presence of a deformity, it is likely that she was limping. The kind of funeral ritual this woman received shows that Natufian culture had a complex system of social interaction. Small groups of hunters and gatherers could not come up with such complex traditions because they moved too often to create strong bonds with certain groups of people. Natufian culture was distinguished by symbolism and a special ideology. Now scientists have to look for other graves with a similar design, and maybe even more unusual ones. In addition, the cultures that borrowed their customs from the Natufians are also to be studied.
Animals don't bury their dead.
And primates too.
Some historical schools determine the appearance of a person on Earth not by the presence of tools (a monkey can use a stick), and not even by the ability to handle fire, but by the emergence of a tradition to bury the dead.
For an archaeologist, the excavation of a burial site is the greatest success. For not only the deceased is placed in the graves, but also many household items of that time. Burial excavations in a certain cultural layer are the most reliable sources, they never lie.
Funeral burials, which can be said with all certainty, are very ancient. Some are over a hundred thousand years old. But I would like to talk not about the age of the burials and not about the antiquity of a person. It's about something else.
Many different burials have been found in Western Asia. The region of the Karm-El ridge is especially rich in them, with the caves of Tabun, Qafzeh, Amud, Skul, Kebara. People of the Neandertholoid type are buried there, not very similar to modern humans. But even such people are buried, I pay attention to this term. Not thrown anywhere. It can be assumed that the ancient man did not die a natural death so often, he became both the prey of predators and the victim of accidents. And the average age of an ancient person fluctuated somewhere around 36 years. The more revealing are the burials - they contain men, women, children, some with traces of violent death, but all of them are buried according to a certain ritual, someone has their heads covered with stone slabs, someone has their whole body, and in all burials there are household items of that time, stone axes or scrapers. One curious quality of ancient burials was also found here - the bones are oriented from west to east or from east to west, only along and never across, there are no burials from north to south or from south to north. This rule is confirmed to this day, for all burials of the Stone Age. That is, a person buried his dead, and at the same time observed certain rituals. Another important point is that there are no mass graves. They are almost always solitary, rarely paired, and very rarely grouped, but more on those below.
Closer to our time there are more interesting and original graves.
In the cave of Monte Circeo (Italy) it was by chance (whether due to a landslide or construction work) that a burial dated 60 thousand years ago was discovered. The burial belongs to a man of 40-45 years old, surrounded by a simple laying of stones, and without any special cultural objects. Another thing turned out to be interesting - an extraneous human skull found in the burial. For several decades, the skull of Monte Circeo was a mystery to scientists, until the possibility of DNA research arose. And shocking news turned out, the skull was female, and a close relative of the deceased, most likely a grandmother or even a mother. Scientists have one assumption - a respectful son or grandson, not having a photograph of his ancestors, kept this skull as a keepsake. Moreover, the memory, apparently, was so dear that they buried him with it ...
The burial in the Shanidar cave (Iraq) became a real sensation for scientists.
Photo 1 "Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq"
A burial of a man about 50 years old of the Neandertholoid type was found. Tools were found in the burial. The entire burial contains the remains of pollen from plants used in medicine. There is so much pollen that it is clear as day - the dead man was simply overwhelmed with flowers. But the main thing is not this. The main thing is that this fifty-year-old dead man was a cripple! Traumatic amputation of the right hand, judging by the bones, healed well at least 10 years before death. The skull bears traces of a strong deforming blow in the region of the right eye socket, also with traces of healing ten years ago. The following picture emerges - a man who lost an eye and a hand, enjoyed the care of others and lived for another ten long years, after which he was carefully buried, and even provided with medicines in the end ...
Photo 2 "Reconstruction of the burial in Shanidar (about 50 thousand years ago)"
In the cave of La Ferraci (France), a rare burial was discovered. Family. A man, a woman, and five children aged from infants to 10 years old were buried. Analysis of the skeletons does not allow us to conclude that it took their lives, an accident or illness. But someone carefully buried the unfortunate family, providing tools and household items ...
Photo 3 "Reconstruction of the appearance of those buried in La Ferracy, late Mousterian period."
What is common to all human burials from ancient times to the present day.
The dead are buried either singly or in family groups. DNA studies have shown that all the bones in the group graves belonged to blood relatives. One exception is known - the burial in Grimaldi, a young man and a bound woman are buried there, they are not relatives.
Since ancient times, the dead have been buried in accordance with the ritual. First, this is the west-east orientation of the body, then the appearance of gravestones and cobblestones, then household items and tools in the burial, then staining the grave bed with natural dyes (ocher). Then fire is actively used, the bodies begin to be cremated, but not to ashes (this is still possible only in the crematorium), bones and skulls cleansed of flesh are buried in accordance with increasingly complex rituals, the bones are laid out in patterns, and bone plates are inserted into the eye sockets of the skulls. Where fire is not used, the dead are dressed up and decorated with shells, feathers, etc.
... And again, well, the analogy with isolate peoples suggests itself. Well, that's how they bury their dead. The Maori people (New Zealand) until recently used such a rite: the body of the deceased was placed in a wicker basket and raised to the top of a tree so that carrion birds cleaned the skeleton (less often burned). Then the skull was separated from the skeleton, which most often occupied a place in the hut next to the skulls of the ancestors (this led Europeans to indescribable horror, they considered the family photo archive an exhibition of cannibal trophies), and the bones were buried, laying out a complex drawing. Similar or similar rites are practiced by all isolate peoples, in accordance with the same signs: a single or family burial in accordance with the accepted ritual.
Why did I start this conversation? That's what.
The burial practice of ancient people not only proves that we have inherited all the ritual aspects of their lives.
It proves that ancient people lived in small groups, and these groups consisted of several families. If a person lived in a herd, then there would be finds of either abandoned unburied bodies, or some kind of mass graves. This is not the case, there are only single or family burials.
She proves that in these groups both assistance to the living and a sense of duty to the dead were already developed.
It leads to the conclusion that it was the family that was a typical form of social organization, and not the "human herd", and family relations were the basis for the development of society, and not vice versa.
References: Article "La Ferrasi", Soviet Historical Encyclopedia, M., 1979; The article "On the Semantics of Collective Burials in the Paleolithic" by Dr. ist. Sciences A. Buzhilova ; Article "Paleolithic", TSB.
Please, your additions, comments and questions.
An ancient Transbaikal man is "dressed" in a bearskin. Slightly slanted oriental eyes and high cheekbones make him look like a mixture of Keanu Reeves and Jackie Chan. He looks about 30 years old - this is the average age at which they passed away during the Upper Paleolithic. Scientists reconstructed the appearance of our ancient ancestor on the basis of the remains discovered during excavations of the world's largest archaeological complex Ust-Menza, which is located at the confluence of the Menza River with the Chikoy River in southwestern Transbaikalia. There, two years ago, archaeologists found strange burials: small pits, less than a meter in diameter, where people were placed literally rolled into a ring. How and, most importantly, why they did it - scientists can only guess.
To date, this is the oldest burial discovered in Transbaikalia - it is about 8 thousand years old, - says Mikhail Konstantinov, professor of the Department of National History of the Transbaikal State University, head of the Chikoi archaeological expedition (which discovered the burials). - The deceased person was laid on his side in accordance with the contour of the pit, and the body itself is covered with ocher - red paint of natural origin.
Mikhail Vasilyevich has been leading the excavations for more than a dozen years, and it was he who unearthed unusual burials. It is not easy for archaeologists to work in Transbaikalia: there are clayey and, most importantly, frozen soils, so excavations are progressing very slowly. It happens that the found skeleton cannot be removed, because it starts to rain, so you have to build a polyethylene dome, wait until the weather improves and the soil dries out. It is advisable to lift the bones from the ground with a part of the soil, so as not to accidentally damage during cleaning. The discovery is covered with foam rubber, sealed in a box and sent for further study. In this case, to the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Here, with the help of a special technology, the twisted skeletons were straightened, their skulls were glued together and their teeth were cleaned with "Blendamed". Now you can proceed to a detailed study, which sometimes stretches for years.
Important centimeters
Now the bone samples have been taken by specialists from the laboratory of geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen, and now we are waiting for clear dates of life, the radiocarbon method should help with this, - Sergey Vasiliev, head of the department of physical anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explains to Ogonyok. - In addition, the Danes will explore DNA samples are part of a large work that is going on all over the world. Scientists take DNA from different territories, for example, from the Far East, from Transbaikalia, Eastern Siberia, and compare it with each other. This allows us to understand how related different populations are, and, accordingly, to find out how ancient mankind migrated and settled.
In the Anthropology Department, skulls of various colors, shapes and sizes lie in transparent plastic containers with multi-colored lids, which we often use to store small things. Some of them are badly damaged, but, surprisingly, despite the thousand-year history, many have beautiful teeth.
Yes, this is surprising, - says the junior researcher of the department Ravil Galeev, who recreated the appearance of the Transbaikal man. - Ancient people, as a rule, had teeth in good condition throughout their lives. Caries arose simultaneously with a change in lifestyle and with the formation of cities.
According to the scientist, the work to restore the appearance of the remaining bones is very long and painstaking. First, all proportions of the skeleton are carefully measured, and sometimes a separate specialist works on each part of the body, whether ears or teeth. The reenactor then restores the missing parts of the skull using a special mixture of wax, rosin and tooth powder - this mixture does not damage the bone and is perfectly preserved. With the help of a 3D printer, an exact copy is made from the skull - a cast of plastic is light, reminiscent of a foam model. Already on top of it, scientists using sculptural plasticine recreate facial features - the methods for this difficult work were developed in this laboratory by the famous anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov. Now they are used all over the world. At the end of everything, a copy is made of hard plastic or bronze, which, as a rule, is sent to the museum.
To reconstruct the appearance, experts studied in detail the skeletons of ancient people. In total, the remains of eight people were found - five men, two women and one child. It turned out that they are similar to modern people. True, there are still differences - the growth of the ancient Transbaikalians by our standards is slightly below average, they have very narrow shoulders (no more than 31 centimeters even for men) and more elongated forearms. Judging by the remains, ancient people suffered from infections, blood diseases, such as anemia, lack of calcium and cold - this is evidenced by the specially modified facial skeleton and cranial vault, as well as narrowed external auditory canals.
Thanks to anthropological reconstructions, we know that they were Mongoloids, - says Professor Konstantinov from the Trans-Baikal University. - This is the type of person that is most often called Paleo-Asiatic. They form the basis for further Siberian ethnic groups, the closest to them are the Mongolian and Tungus.
In April, Japanese specialists from the famous Tokyo Metropolitan University, where geoarchaeology and experimental archeology have been developing in recent years, are going to come to Chita. These relatively new areas recreate the tools, crafts and life of previous generations based on ancient technologies. For example, recently experiments have been actively carried out here to understand how ancient people split stones.
We expect the visit of one of the most famous experts in this field - Professor Masami Izuho, - says Professor Mikhail Konstantinov. - He specializes in the study of the Paleolithic of Eurasia. The Japanese are interested in all the skeletons found in the territory of Transbaikalia. They make copies and then exhibit them at the Central History Museum in Tokyo. The Japanese quite rightly consider all Siberian peoples to be their relatives. In this they, by the way, are very different from the Chinese, who, on the contrary, consider their nation exceptional.
In general, modern science, according to scientists, is changing towards greater complexity, which is very important. Archaeologists work together with geologists, geographers, specialists in fauna and flora, and this allows us to imagine how a person lived in specific natural conditions. True, we still know little.
feel the time
It is not known exactly when people came to Transbaikalia. It is only clear that at first they were Neanderthals, and then Cro-Magnons. Not so long ago, the Chikoi expedition discovered the oldest archeological monument of Transbaikalia - a human site dating back at least 120 thousand years. Thus, the history of human presence in this region has increased by about 40 thousand years.
It was previously believed that people appeared here about 80 thousand years ago. They came from the south - from the territory of modern Mongolia and from China. People moved in search of food along the rivers, which are called the roads of antiquity, and from here they went further to Yakutia, to the Arctic. Then, along the then existing land bridge - Beringia, they crossed to Alaska. It is known that this bridge rose from the water at least six times, and each time both animals and later people migrated along it in both directions. So the ancient Transbaikal man is a relative of the American Indians.
In the Trans-Baikal region itself, the climate changed dramatically several times: before the appearance of man, there were subtropics with ferns and lianas, recently in Buryatia, near Gusinoozersk, bones and teeth of a monkey 3 million years old were discovered. But at the time of the ancient Transbaikalians it was already quite cold, mammoths and woolly rhinos were found.
These are Stone Age cultures. People then were hunters, fishermen, gatherers, - says Professor Mikhail Konstantinov. - They knew how to do a lot of things, including building dwellings in the form of tents, using bows and arrows, and making dishes from clay. They also made stone tools, choosing beautiful rocks - jade, jasper, chalcedony. If we talk about recent important finds, I would note the oldest bear sculpture in the world that we found. Its age is 35 thousand years, and it is one of the oldest works of art in the world. The sculpture is made from a rhinoceros vertebra. We also found an elk's head and a very beautiful "chief's rod" made of reindeer antler - these are the rarest finds.
The most difficult thing is to restore the spiritual world of ancient people. Their burials always speak of religiosity - of some idea of the afterlife. The burial of the Baikal man is especially interesting in this regard.
It is still unclear why such a strange form of body position was needed, - says Professor Konstantinov, - but red ocher traditionally symbolizes fire, blood and the continuation of life. All this reflects the belief in the afterlife, in life after death. This, apparently, is an attempt to comprehend the world, to find one's place, to strengthen one's strength.
The strange shape of the burials is not the only mystery of the past. Not so long ago, scientists stumbled upon a unique burial of a dog aged 5-7 thousand years. Apparently, the animal was buried with special honors, because stone tools were found next to the body.
To better understand the culture of the distant past, scientists lack more artifacts, but to win them back in these parts is quite problematic. For example, on the Angara and Yenisei, sandy shores often collapse and present finds themselves. There are a large number of unexplored caves in Altai, where, in all likelihood, there is a chance to make a discovery, but here you need to go literally at random. So scientists call patience the main quality of an archaeologist.
Our further efforts will be aimed at discovering more ancient burials, - says Professor Mikhail Konstantinov. - Now we are talking about burials that are 7-8 thousand years old, but we know that a person appeared in Transbaikalia at least 100 thousand years ago. We have found more than a thousand stone tools of that period, defined as the Middle Paleolithic, but the anthropological material of this age is still unknown in Transbaikalia. We hope to find traces of human presence in Transbaikalia, who lived 200-300 thousand years ago. It is paradoxical, but in order to know ourselves, you need to go deep into the centuries.
It is believed that the cemetery in the Jehoshaphat Valley near the outer wall of East Jerusalem, where, by the way, tourists almost never go down, is one of the oldest in the world, and is still used today. It is impossible to verify this, although, of course, there are tombstones and graves placed side by side, put up in 500 BC, and in 500 AD, and in 1500, and very recent burials. This seems strange, because even a simple calculation and logic will tell you that there will not be physically a place for graves here. But everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. 
If you go around the Archaeological Park in the Old City of Jerusalem, then literally around the corner you can see the tn valley of Jehoshaphat, almost entirely occupied by the cemeteries of all three monotheistic religions - Jewish, Christian and Muslim. This area is also Muslim. although there are just a lot of Christian churches. This is explained by the fact that directly opposite Old Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives, the holy place of Christianity with its sacred center, the Garden of Gethsemane. 
However, this is a residential area, densely populated by Arabs who built houses here to their taste. Well, one can only compare them to the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem. 
The architectural style is completely absent here. True, there are parks, and inexplicable wastelands, fences, parking lots, etc. But all this is very chaotic and motley. There is absolutely nothing for the eye to catch on to. 
The hills of Jerusalem at sunset, Ras al-Amoud and Bat el-Hama, and the road to Bethlehem. These are all areas of the Arab population. 
Jewish woman at the bus stop. Bus number 5A will take you directly to Jehoshaphat Valley. 
Tourist. And maybe an employee of the special services, there are a lot of secret agents in disguise. 
Among the Orthodox Jews is a family with a pregnant woman. Unusually, her hair is uncovered, although this is also Orthodox. 
Excavations at the site of the City of David, the most ancient part of the Jewish settlement in Jerusalem. Well, this is what houses looked like 3,000 years ago. 
Arab quarters of Jerusalem. 
This part of the Jehoshaphat Valley and the Kidron Stream, which flows at the very bottom, is not yet built up, and, surprisingly, is not occupied by a cemetery.
Here, however, the first Jewish burials appear, but they are rather an exception. From here you have a good view of the entire eastern part of Jerusalem. 
Opposite them is the same Archaeological Park near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the former fortress of the Templars. Here, at the very bottom of the wall, you can see the huge stone blocks of the ancient Herod Wall, the one that continues to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). 
From here we descend into the valley of Kidron, or the valley of Jehoshaphat. Directly in front of us (at sunset) is the Mount of Olives with villas and hotels, the Church of Mary Magdalene (with golden domes in the center), built with the money of the Russian tsarist regime in 1888. Behind it, at the very top of the mountain, is a Benedictine monastery. 
Below is a Jewish cemetery. It is so ancient that even the tombs carved into the rocks lying at the very bottom have changed owners many times. The tombs of so many prophets (it is unlikely that the prophets of the Old Testament were buried there) on the right, in the center with a pyramidal roof, is the tomb of the prophet Zechariah (in fact, just an ancient tomb that has nothing to do with Zechariah). 
The higher up the side of the mountain, the more organized this colossal cemetery looks. The graves here were placed one on top of the other, so the antiquity of the burial did not matter. Old graves were simply built on with new ones. 
But below everything failed and crumbled. Of course, there are no bones there and cannot be. When the body decayed, the bones were collected and placed in a special box of very small sizes, buried separately, and the grave was emptied. 
The cemetery comes right up to the city blocks. Thousands of Jews in all ages have dreamed of dying here and being buried, so that when the Messiah comes, they will be the first to rise. The Messiah must descend from heaven to this Mount of Olives and enter Jerusalem through the Lion's Gate, now walled up by Muslims. 
The tombs are now all empty, they have long been completely plundered, and only miraculously survived after all the countless wars. 
Cemetery cat. 
On the highway that circles east Jerusalem stands the beautiful Church of the Agony, on the site of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed and where he was arrested. The entire church, built in 1924, is decorated with mosaics inside and out. 
It was Christmas days, and in the church even in the evening there are quite a lot of pilgrims who came by bus. 
Down in the Kidron Valley in front of the Agony Church is a Christian cemetery. It is interesting that there are almost no inscriptions here, the pilgrims and Christian figures buried here preferred to remain unknown to outsiders. 
Suddenly, a man galloped on a horse, and even talking on a mobile phone. 
If you go to the other side of the valley and go up the stairs, you can find yourself at the very wall of Jerusalem in the Muslim cemetery. 
The view from it to the Mount of Olives is very impressive, but the Muslim cemetery itself looks very unpresentable. 
They also began to bury here a long time ago, almost from the moment the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, and especially after the capture of Jerusalem and its protection from the Crusaders by Saladin. The difference between the state of Jewish and Christian graves and Muslim graves is amazing. 
You go with one question: is it really impossible to bring everything here into at least some order? 
Almost all the tombstones are broken or damaged, and everything is littered with garbage. I note that there were also battles here in 1967, but enough time has passed since then for everyone to have time to restore. 
Most of the burials were made here a very long time ago, and there are no relatives left. According to Muslim beliefs, it is believed that those buried here will also be resurrected on the day of the coming of the Messiah. And so that the Jews would not enter Jerusalem, prominent warriors of Arab origin were buried here. 
This is how they look at each other for centuries, dead Jews and Arabs. 
Some graves are well-groomed, you can’t say anything, but some are only lined with a stone that came to hand. 
The Lion Gate of Jerusalem, one of the most beautiful in the city, was walled up by the Arabs during the expulsion of the Crusaders. And also because of the fear of the Messiah of Jewish-Christian origin, in the naive hope of preventing this event by human efforts. It is strange to see the beautiful arches of ancient times laid with stones now. But what is, that is, no one is even trying to dismantle them. It is good to walk here during the day, but it is very deserted and uncomfortable.
