Sunlight filtering through a thick leaf canopy illuminates a cluster of the 12,000 ancient gravestones in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, the historic Jewish Quarter in Prague, capital of Czechia / Czech Republic. The congested graveyard probably holds well over 100,000 burials, with the bodies interred over about 350 years in up to 12 layers. The earliest tombstone dates from 1439 and the last interment was in 1787. Most of the headstones commemorate Jews buried several layers below the surface.
Prague, Czechia / Czech Republic: afternoon sunlight filtering through a thick leaf canopy illuminates a cluster of the 12,000 ancient gravestones in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, the Czech capital’s Jewish Quarter, where at least 100,000 inhabitants of the former ghetto were interred over a 350-year period. Although the cemetery’s foundation date is not known, the earliest tombstone, of rabbi and liturgical poet Avigdor Kara, dates from 1439. The last burial was in 1787, by which time the cemetery had long outgrown its city centre space, the ground level was raised well above surrounding streets and the soil was held in place by retaining walls. As the layers of burials increased, some ancient tombstones were raised to the new surface, so many visible now commemorate people buried several levels down. The cemetery is Europe’s second oldest Jewish graveyard and one of the oldest surviving Jewish burial grounds in the world. The earliest gravestones are plain apart from Hebrew inscriptions, but later examples feature architectural details such as pilasters. From the 16th century the deceased were characterised by symbols relating to their name, character or profession, such as pairs of blessing hands, wine grapes or animals such as lions, bears, deer and wolves. A harp or violin indicated a musician, a lancet a physician and a pair of scissors a tailor. Important Jewish figures buried here include scholar, teacher and writer Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezulel (died 1609), Mordecai Maisel (1601), developer of the Prague Jewish Town and David Gans (1613), Renaissance scholar, historian, mathematician and astronomer.
Size: 3135px × 2090px
Location: Old Jewish Cemetery, Jewish Quarter or Josefov, Prague, Czechia / Czech Republic.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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