AN ARAB FIRST! Grief in Iraq: inside the world's largest cemetery – in pictures

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• Tombs are seen at Wadi al-Salam, Arabic for ‘Peace Valley’, in Najaf, south of Baghdad. It’s considered to be the largest cemetery in the world. All photographs by Alaa al-Marjani/Reuters

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  A man prays inside the shrine of Imam Mahdi at the Wadi al-Salam cemetery.

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  People line up to collect blessed water inside the shrine of Imam Mahdi.

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  A woman takes a selfie inside the shrine. The cemetery is special for Shia Muslims as it surrounds the mausoleum of their first imam, Ali Bin Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.

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  A woman washes the grave of her relative.

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  An undertaker smokes his shisha.

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  These containers are used for washing the graves at the cemetery.

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  As land becomes scarce, the cost of a standard 25 sq metre family burial lot has risen to about 5m Iraqi dinars (£3,240).

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  A young boy digs a grave. The pace of daily burials rose to 150–200 after Isis overran a third of the country in 2014.

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  Graves are built with baked bricks and plaster, and among the tombstones are domed family crypts and underground burial vaults.

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  A municipal worker at the cemetery.

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  The cemetery covers roughly 10 sq km and holds at least five million graves.

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