To visit the famous Muslim Cemetery of Bab al-Rahma in Jerusalem, I took a path which descends into the Kidron Valley and then a staircase leads to the Bab al-Rahma Cemetery. I entered the Bab al-Rahma from the South side, on it’s opposite side was the Lions Gate in the Jerusalem’s City Walls. 

The Mount of Olives, so named for the olive groves that once dotted its slopes, has been the eastern border of the city of Jerusalem for centuries.  It is regarded as a holy site by all three Abrahamic faiths and therefore contains sites and cemeteries of all three.

The Muslim cemetery is known as Bab al-Rahmah and is the third-most prominent cemetery in the Islamic world after Jannat al-Baqi in Madinah and Jannat al Mu’allah in Makkah.

It was established during the reign of Umar RA over 1400 years ago and therefore contains many historically significant graves of the Companions RA and others. Several eminent Companions of the Prophet ﷺ had settled in Jerusalem, drawn by the holiness of the city and some of them passed away here. 

Bab ar-Rahmah covers around 11,000m². It extends along the eastern wall of the Old City, which is 891m long, including 460m of Masjid Al-Aqsa’s eastern wall.

The southern half of the cemetery is still filled with gravestones from every historical period. Thus, fourteen centuries after its establishment, Bab al-Rahmah is still an important historical landmark and part of our Islamic heritage.