Resting Places

The oldest documented cemeteries

These are the burial grounds in our directory with the earliest recorded founding dates in Wikidata, from ancient necropoleis to medieval churchyards. A caution on reading them: a founding date this old is usually an archaeological or historiographical estimate attached to the source record, and many old grounds have no recorded date at all, so absence from this list means missing data, not youth.

  1. Dahshur · Markaz al Badrashayn, Egypt · established -2588 · 9 documented notable interments
  2. Chellah · Rabat, Morocco · established -699 · 3 documented notable interments
  3. Stećak necropolis Radimlja · Stolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina · established 15
  4. Al-Baqi Cemetery · Medina, Saudi Arabia · established 622 · 96 documented notable interments
  5. Kyrkhlyar · Derbent, Russia · established 700 · 1 documented notable interments
  6. Takht-e Foulad · District 6, Iran · established 1000 · 5 documented notable interments
  7. Western Xia mausoleums · Yinchuan, People's Republic of China · established 1100
  8. Holy Innocents' Cemetery · 1st arrondissement of Paris, France · established 1130 · 1 documented notable interments
  9. Saint-Germain Cemetery · Paris, France · established 1259
  10. Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery · Eyüpsultan, Turkey · established 1453 · 83 documented notable interments
  11. Novodevichy Cemetery · Khamovniki District, Russia · established 1524 · 1451 documented notable interments
  12. Remah Cemetery · Kraków, Poland · established 1535 · 8 documented notable interments
  13. Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin · Lublin, Poland · established 1541 · 4 documented notable interments
  14. Cross Bones · London Borough of Southwark, United Kingdom · established 1598
  15. Catacombe dei Cappuccini · Palermo, Italy · established 1599 · 3 documented notable interments
  16. Flatbush African Burial Ground · Brooklyn, United States · established 1600
  17. King's Chapel Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1630 · 18 documented notable interments
  18. Phipps Street Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1630 · 3 documented notable interments
  19. Dorchester North Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1634 · 9 documented notable interments
  20. Eliot Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1635 · 5 documented notable interments
  21. Cimetière Sainte-Marguerite · 11th arrondissement of Paris, France · established 1637
  22. Picpus Cemetery · 12th arrondissement of Paris, France · established 1640 · 41 documented notable interments
  23. Old English Cemetery, Livorno · Livorno, Italy · established 1645 · 12 documented notable interments
  24. Coddington Cemetery · Newport, United States · established 1647 · 6 documented notable interments
  25. Old Jewish Cemetery, Cieszyn · Cieszyn, Poland · established 1647
  26. East Norwalk Historical Cemetery · East Norwalk, United States · established 1655 · 22 documented notable interments
  27. Khojivank Pantheon of Tbilisi · Tbilisi, Georgia · established 1655 · 30 documented notable interments
  28. Fontanelle cemetery · Naples, Italy · established 1656
  29. Copp's Hill Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1659 · 13 documented notable interments
  30. Granary Burying Ground · Boston, United States · established 1660 · 47 documented notable interments