However, there was another crew member aboard the Endurance: Mrs. Chippy, a beloved tabby cat known for its devotion to its master, ability to climb rigging and close shaves with death.

Here’s the story of Mrs. Chippy, the Endurance‘s feline crew member.

Mrs. Chippy was a Scottish cat

Mrs. Chippy, a tiger-striped tabby, was bought by Scottish shipwright and carpenter Harry ‘Chippy’ McNish (chippy being a colloquial British term for a carpenter) from his home in Cathcart, Scotland, where he lived in a cottage called Mole Catcher’s House. Mrs. Chippy earned its name by dutifully following Chippy McNish around, like an overly attentive wife.

The name stuck. When Chippy McNish was chosen to be part of the crew on Shackleton’s Endurance, Mrs. Chippy came along too. A ship’s cat, Mrs. Chippy was tasked with both catching mice and rats and being a source of company for the whole crew. After a month at sea, it was learned that the robust tabby cat was in fact ‘not a lady, but a gentleman’.

He was an able seaman

The crew having their hair cut onboard Endurance in 1914. Mrs. Chippy would have been present at many of these events.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The expedition photographer Frank Hurley captured the only known picture of Mrs. Chippy. However, many of the crew wrote about him being ‘full of character’ in their diaries and logs and attested to his confidence and ease at sea.

Captain Frank Worsley detailed Mrs. Chippy’s habit of climbing the rigging “exactly after the manner of a seaman going aloft”, while meteorologist Leonard Hussey noted that he used to take a provocative stroll across the roofs of the dogs’ kennels. He also impressed the crew with his ability to walk along inch-wide rails in the roughest of seas.

However, Mrs. Chippy’s sea legs occasionally wobbled. In an entry dated 13 September 1914, Storekeeper Thomas Orde-Lees wrote that “an extraordinary thing happened during the night. The tabby cat jumped overboard through one of the cabin portholes and the officer on watch, Lt. Hudson, heard her screams and turned the ship smartly round & picked her up. She must have been in the water 10 minutes or more”.

He was picked up by the ship’s biologist Robert Clark, who used one of his sample nets. It seems that one of Mrs. Chippy’s nine lives was used up.

He was shot

After the Endurance became trapped in pack ice, the transcontinental plan was abandoned. Shackleton’s focus was now one of survival, and he began drawing up plans to march the crew westward to one of several possible destinations.

Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic faithful dogs being fed in the ice kennel, while Endurance was stuck fast. 1916.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Shackleton ordered that the weakest animals who could not support the perilous journey would need to be shot. Along with five sled dogs (including three puppies, one of whom was the surgeon’s pet), Mrs. Chippy was ordered to be killed.

The ship’s crew reportedly doted over Mrs. Chippy in his final hours, giving him hugs and feeding him his favourite food, sardines, which was perhaps laced with a sleeping drug.

In a diary entry from 29 October 1915, Shackleton recorded:

“This afternoon Sallie’s three youngest pups, Sue’s Sirius, and Mrs. Chippy, the carpenter’s cat, have to be shot. We could not undertake the maintenance of weaklings under the new conditions. Macklin [who owned a pet puppy], Crean [in charge of the dog-handling], and the carpenter seemed to feel the loss of their friends rather badly.”

McNish never forgave Shackleton

McNish proved to be an essential crew member when he was chosen, along with 5 others, to sail some 800 miles in a single lifeboat to South Georgia. He refitted the boat to make the journey possible, and arguably saved the lives of the whole crew as a result.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands stamp featuring Mrs. Chippy.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

McNish never forgave Shackleton for killing his cat. Their relationship worsened, and Shackleton even threatened to shoot him for arguing that the crew no longer had to take the captain’s orders since their contract had lapsed upon the sinking of the Endurance in November 1915.

Shackleton and McNish’s relationship was so bad that Shackleton refused to recommend McNish for a Polar Medal that the rest of the crew later received. McNish’s family would (in vain) later try and lobby the British government that McNish be posthumously awarded the same medal in 1997.

Before he died in 1930, McNish repeatedly stated to his friends, family and visitors, “Shackleton killed my cat”.

A statue of him is on his master’s gravestone

Mrs. Chippy’s statue by Chris Elliot. On Harry McNeish’s grave in Karori cemetery, Wellington, New Zealand.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

McNish died in destitution in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1930. Though he was buried with full military honours in a Karori cemetery, he was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

In 1959, the New Zealand Antarctic Society were shocked to learn that McNish had received only a pauper’s burial, so raised funds for a headstone to stand on his grave.

In 2004, the same society decided to create a marker for Mrs. Chippy. The public donated funds to create a life-size bronze statue of Mrs. Chippy, and later the same year, around 100 people gathered round McNish’s grave and read words of tribute for both the carpenter and his cat.

There are no words on the grave about beloved Mrs. Chippy. However, it is telling that those visiting the grave often present his little statue with flowers.

Read more about the discovery of Endurance. Explore the history of Shackleton and the Age of Exploration. Visit the official Endurance22 website.

The impact of his invention cannot be understated. A milestone in modern human history, it started the printing revolution in Europe, ushered in the modern period of human history and played a pivotal role in the evolution of the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution.

In 1997, Time-Life magazine selected Gutenberg’s invention as the most important of the whole second millennium.

So, who was printing pioneer Johannes Gutenberg?

His father was probably a goldsmith

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was born in around 1400 in the German city of Mainz. He was the second of three children of patrician merchant Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden and shopkeeper’s daughter Else Wyrich. Some records indicate that the family belonged to the aristocracy, and that Johannes’ father worked as a goldsmith for the bishop at Mainz.

Little is known about his early life and education. However, it’s known that he lived in the Gutenberg house in Mainz, which is where he derived his surname from.

He did printing experiments

In 1428, a craftsman’s revolt against the noble classes broke out in Mainz. Gutenberg’s family were exiled and settled in what we now call Strasbourg, France. It’s known that Gutenberg worked with his father in the ecclesiastical mint, and learned to read and write in German and Latin, which was the language of both churchmen and scholars.

Already familiar with bookmaking techniques, Gutenberg started his printing experiments in Strasbourg. He perfected the usage of small metal type, rather than the usage of woodblocks for printing, since the latter took a long time to carve and were prone to breaking. He developed a casting system and metal alloys which made production easier.

Little is known about his life more specifically. However, a letter written by him in March 1434 indicated that he may have married a woman in Strasbourg called Ennelin.

The Gutenberg Bible was his masterpiece

Gutenberg’s “42-line” Bible, in two volumes, 1454, Mainz. Preserved and exhibited at the Martin Bodmer Foundation.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In 1448, Gutenberg returned to Mainz and set up a print shop there. By 1452, in order to fund his printing experiments, Gutenberg entered into a business partnership with local financier Johann Fust.

Gutenberg’s most famous work was the Gutenberg Bible. Consisting of three volumes of text written in Latin, it featured 42 lines of type per page and was decorated with colourful illustrations. The size of the font made the text extremely easy to read, which proved popular among church clergy. By 1455, he had printed several copies of his Bible. Only 22 survive today.

In a letter written in March 1455, the future Pope Pius II recommended the Gutenberg Bible to Cardinal Carvajal. He wrote that “the script was very neat and legible, not at all difficult to follow. Your grace would be able to read it without effort, and indeed without glasses.”

He fell into financial trouble

By December 1452, Gutenberg was in severe debt to Fust and was unable to repay his loan. Fust sued Gutenberg in the archbishop’s court, which ruled in the former’s favour. Fust then seized the printing press as collateral, and gave the majority of Gutenberg’s presses and type pieces to his employee and Fust’s future son-in-law, Peter Schöffer.

Along with the Gutenberg Bible, Gutenberg also created the Psalter (book of Psalms) which was also given to Fust as part of the settlement. Decorated with hundreds of two-colour initial letters and delicate scroll borders, it was the first book to display the name of its printers, Fust and Schöffer. However, historians are almost certain that Gutenberg was working for the pair in the business he had once owned, and devised the method himself.

Little is known about his later life

An etching of a printing press in 1568. At the left in the foreground, a ‘puller’ removes a printed sheet from the press. The ‘beater’ to his right is inking the forme. In the background, compositors are setting type.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

After Fust’s lawsuit, little is known about Gutenberg’s life. While some historians claim that Gutenberg continued to work for Fust, others say that he drove him out of business. By 1460, he abandoned printing entirely. Some speculate this was because he was starting to go blind.

In 1465, Adolf van Nassau-Wiesbaden, the archbishop of Mainz, granted Gutenberg the title of Hofmann, a gentleman of the court. This entitled him to a salary, fine clothing and tax-free grain and wine.

He died on 3 February 1468 in Mainz. There was little acknowledgment of his contributions and he was buried in the cemetery of the Franciscan church at Mainz. When both the church and cemetery were destroyed during World War Two, Gutenberg’s grave was lost.

His invention changed the course of history

Gutenberg’s invention revolutionised book-making in Europe, making mass communication possible and sharply increasing literacy rates across the continent.

The unrestricted spread of information became a decisive factor in the European Renaissance and Protestant Reformation, and broke the virtual monopoly of the religious clergy and educated elite over education for centuries. Moreover, vernacular languages rather than Latin became more commonly spoken and written.

Significant questions about Nefertiti still remain. For example, where was she from? Where is her tomb? Despite these enduring uncertainties, Nefertiti remains one of the most iconic figures of ancient Egypt. Today, a famous limestone bust of Nefertiti is a hugely popular attraction at the Neues Museum in Berlin, and as such has helped immortalise the legacy of the extraordinary ruler.

So, who was Queen Nefertiti?

1. It is unclear where Nefertiti came from

Nefertiti’s parentage is unknown. However, her name is Egyptian and translates to ‘A Beautiful Woman Has Come’, meaning that some Egyptologists believe she was a princess from Mitanni (Syria). However, there is also evidence to suggest that she was the Egyptian-born daughter of the high court official Ay, brother of Akhenaton’s mother, Tiy.

2. She was probably married aged 15

It is unclear when Nefertiti married Amenhotep III’s son, the future pharaoh Amenhotep IV. However, it is believed that she was 15 when she was married. The couple went on to rule together from 1353 to 1336 BC. Reliefs depict Nefertiti and Amenhotep IV as inseparable and on equal footing, riding chariots together and even kissing in public. By all accounts, the couple had a genuine romantic connection which was very unusual for ancient pharaohs and their wives.

Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) and Nefertiti. Louvre Museum, Paris

Image Credit: Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 FR , via Wikimedia Commons

3. Nefertiti had at least 6 daughters

Nefertiti and Akhenaten are known to have had at least 6 daughters together – the first three being born at Thebes, and the younger three being born at Akhetaton (Amarna). Two of Nefertiti’s daughters became queen of Egypt. At one time, it was theorised that Nefertiti was Tutankhamun’s mother; however, a genetic study on unearthed mummies has since indicated that she was not.

4. Nefertiti and her husband enacted a religious revolution

Nefertiti and the pharaoh played a large part in establishing the Aten cult, a religious mythology which defined the sun god, Aten, as the most important god and the only one to be worshipped in Egypt’s polytheistic canon. Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and Nefertiti to ‘Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti’, meaning ‘beautiful are the beauties of Aten, a beautiful woman has come’, to honour the god. Nefertiti and Akhenaten were probably also priests.

The family lived in a city called Akhetaton (now known as el-Amarna) meant to honour their new god. There were several open-air temples in the city, and the palace stood in the middle.

5. Nefertiti was regarded as a living fertility goddess

Nefertiti’s sexuality, which was emphasised by her exaggeratedly ‘feminine’ body shape and fine linen garments, as well as her six daughters being emblems of her fertility, indicate that she was considered to be a living fertility goddess. Artistic depictions of Nefertiti as a highly sexualised figure support this.

6. Nefertiti may have co-ruled with her husband

Based upon reliefs and statues, some historians believe that Nefertiti may have acted as queen regnant, her husband’s co-ruler rather than his consort, after he had reigned for 12 years. Her husband went to great lengths to have her depicted as an equal, and Nefertiti is often depicted as wearing the pharaoh’s crown or smiting enemies in battle. However there is no written evidence to confirm her political status.

Akhenaten (left), Nefertiti (right) and their daughters before the god Aten.

Image Credit: Personal picture of Gérard Ducher., CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons

7. Nefertiti ruled over ancient Egypt’s wealthiest period

Nefertiti and Akhenaten ruled over what was quite possibly the wealthiest period in ancient Egyptian history. During their reign, the new capital Amarna also achieved an artistic boom which was distinct from any other period in Egypt. The style showed movement and figures of more exaggerated proportions with elongated hands and feet, while depictions of Akhenaten assign him feminine attributes such as prominent breasts and wide hips.

8. It is unclear how Nefertiti died

Before 2012, it was believed that Nefertiti vanished from the historical record in the 12th year of Akhenaten’s reign. It was suggested that she might have died from injury, a plague or a natural cause. However, in 2012, an inscription from year 16 of Akhenaten’s reign was discovered that bore Nefertiti’s name and demonstrated that she was still alive. Nonetheless, the circumstances of her death remain unknown.

9. The location of Nefertiti’s tomb remains a mystery

Nefertiti’s body has never been discovered. If she had died at Amarna, she would have been buried in the Amarna royal tomb; however, no body has been found. Speculation that she was one of the bodies recovered in the Valley of the Kings also later proved to be unfounded.

Front and side view of the bust of Nefertiti

Image Credit: Jesús Gorriti, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons (left) / Gunnar Bach Pedersen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (right)

In 2015, British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves discovered that there were some small markings in Tutankhamun’s tomb that could indicate a hidden doorway. He theorised that it could be Nefertiti’s tomb. However, radar scans showed that there were no chambers.

10. Nefertiti’s bust is one of the most copied works of art in history

The bust of Nefertiti is one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt. It is widely thought to have been made in around 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose, since it was discovered in his workshop in 1912 by a German archaeological group. The bust went on display at the Neues Museum in the 1920s and immediately attracted international attention. Today, it is considered to be one of the most beautiful depictions of a female figure from the ancient world.

As a result, whether it was acquiring new territory, quashing rebellions or capturing sacrificial victims, the equilibrium of Aztec life was maintained by war. Warfare was a fundamental part of the culture, with nearly all males expected to participate in battle – referred to in Nahuatl poetry as ‘the song of shields’ – for both religious and political reasons.

From training rituals to battle strategies, here’s the history of Aztec warfare.

Warfare was ingrained into Aztec mythology

Aztecs believed that their sun and war god Huitzilopochtli had been fully armed and prepared for war since birth. Indeed, the first thing he is said to have done upon his birth was to kill his 400 siblings before dismembering and scattering their bodies, which then became stars in the night sky that served as a regular reminder of the importance of warfare to the Aztec people.

Moreover, the god Huitzilopochtli’s name is derived from the words for ‘hummingbird’ and ‘left’. Aztecs believed that dead warriors helped Huitzilopochtli defeat yet more enemies in the warrior afterlife, before eventually returning as hummingbirds on the ‘left side’ of the world, the south.

Important human sacrifices were regularly made to Huitzilopochtli at his temple at the peak of the great pyramid Templo Mayor in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

Warriors were trained from a young age

A representation of a Quauholōlli, a mace-like weapon, from the Codex Duran, which was completed in around 1581.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

From a young age, all Aztec males excluding nobles were expected to be trained as warriors. This was partly in response to the fact that Aztec society as a whole had no standing army. Instead, warriors would be drafted to a campaign through a ‘tequital’, a payment of goods and labour. Outside of battle, many warriors were simple farmers or tradesmen.

At birth, baby boys would be given the warrior symbols of a specially-made shield and arrow to hold. The umbilical cord, along with the shield and arrow, would then be ceremoniously taken to a battlefield to be buried by a renowned warrior.

From the age of 15, boys were formally trained to become warriors. They attended special military compounds where they were taught about weaponry and tactics alongside being regaled with stories from battle veterans. Boys would later accompany the Aztec army on campaigns as baggage handlers.

When they finally became warriors and took their first captive, boys were allowed to cut off the lock or ‘piochtli’ hair at the back of their necks which they had worn since the age of ten. This symbolised their transition into being true warriors and men.

The aim of warfare was to dominate not kill

The Aztec Empire depended on trade, agriculture and income from captured territories. The Aztecs’ primary objective was therefore not to mercilessly slaughter enemies, but instead subjugate other cities and lands to extract wealth, extend their lucrative trade network and capture people for human sacrifice.

Defeated enemies did not necessarily have to give up their way of life, and conquered rulers were often left in power, with only their temples destroyed and religious idols captured and displayed in Tenochtitlan as tokens of war and newly-captured territory.

This page from the Codex Tovar, completed in the late 16th century, depicts the burning of a temple from an annexed city.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Instead, the defeated party generally agreed to pay regular tributes in both goods and people. Tributes were often in the form of slaves, military service, precious metals, jewellery, fabrics, exotic feathers, foodstuffs and weaponry.

The head of the military was the king

The military commander-in-chief was the king, known as the tlatoani. He was assisted by two second-in-commands, who had to name their successors prior to battle so that they could be immediately replaced if they were killed in combat.

The military itself was composed of a large number of commoners who possessed only basic military training and were organised into wards that were commanded by leaders. A smaller number of professional warriors who belonged to the nobility were organised into warrior societies according to their achievements.

Priests also took part in warfare by carrying the effigies of deities into battle.

Bravery in battle was rewarded with privileges

Being a warrior in Aztec society was one of the few ways that commoners could improve their social standing. Though diverse units of warriors with varying levels of status reported to the council, brave and able soldiers were allowed to rise in the ranks if they took a certain number of captives.

Symbols of rank included the right to wear certain feather headdresses, cloaks and jewellery, such as lip, nose and earplugs. Officers were permitted to wear ensigns made of reeds and feathers. Even the lowest ranks could win privileges through heroic deeds such as the right to eat in the royal palaces, have concubines and drink beer in public.

The most prestigious units were the cuauhchique (‘shaved ones’) and the otontin or otomies. These elite units could only be joined by warriors who had displayed at least 20 acts of bravery in battle and were already members of the prestigious jaguar and eagle warrior groups. These groups were regarded as nobility, with the warriors within them working full time as a kind of police force for the city-state.

The Aztecs were always fighting

This page from the Codex Tovar depicts the scene of a gladiatorial sacrificial rite, celebrated on the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli (Feast of the Flaying of Men).

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Everyone in Aztec society benefitted from a successful battle or campaign. Alongside the desire for new territory and physical goods, prisoners captured during warfare were sacrificed to the gods which ensured continued benevolence to the Aztecs.

Obtaining the prisoners was another matter, and required the Aztecs to constantly go on campaigns to acquire sacrificial victims. Indeed, both sides agreed in advance that the losers would provide warriors for sacrifice. The Aztecs believed that the blood of sacrificial victims, especially of brave warriors, fed their god Huitzilopochtli.

These campaigns were known as ‘Flower Wars’, since the defeated warriors and future sacrifice victims were decorated in splendid feather war costumes as they were transported back to Tenochtitlan. Awaiting them was a sacrificial process that involved having their heart removed before their corpse was skinned, dismembered and decapitated.

Their method of warfare contributed to their downfall

Aztecs were fierce fighters. Upon seeing their enemy, the first weapons used were dart throwers, slings, spears and bows and arrows. When engaging in hand-to-hand combat, razor-sharp obsidian clubs, swords and daggers were used. As fierce warriors, often their mere presence and the threat of war was enough for other Mesoamerican cities to surrender.

This isn’t to say they were never defeated: in 1479, their army of 32,000 was slaughtered by one of their prime enemies, the Tarascans. However, this was the beginning of a number of successive defeats that would eventually lead to the downfall of the empire.

Aztecs would engage in pre-battle diplomacy and didn’t rely upon surprise or massacring their enemy. This gave Spanish conquerors a distinct advantage when they sought to colonise Mexico in 1519. Moreover, conquered people under the Aztecs were more than happy to side with European invaders, with token victories such as the Flower Wars paling in comparison to the military prowess of the colonisers.

After centuries of violent expansion, the Aztec Empire was consigned to history in 1521 when the Spanish seized control of Tenochtitlán.

However, the history and origins of the mighty structure are still debated. A focal point of debate amongst historians and archaeologists centres on the sphinx’s nose – or the lack of it. It is unclear when it disappeared, who removed it and why. A now disproven myth pointed blame at Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies, while some theorists credit Muhammad Sa’im al-Dahr with the removal of the sphinx’s nose.

So, who broke the Great Spinx’s nose, and why?

Sphinxes are prominent in Egyptian mythology

A sphinx (also spelled sphynx) is a prominent mythological figure in Asian, Greek and Egyptian mythology which normally has the body of a lion and head of a human.

In ancient Egypt, the sphinx was regarded as a spiritual guardian and was most commonly depicted as male and wearing a pharaoh headdress, as is the case with the Great Sphinx.

The creature was thus often included in temple and tomb complexes, such as Sphinx Alley in Upper Egypt, a two-mile avenue lined with sphinx statues that connects the Luxor and Karnak temples.

It was created by Pharaoh Khafre

The Great Sphinx of Giza, partially excavated, with two pyramids in the background. Albumen print. Dates between 1867 and 1899 created/published. Most probably in De l’Égypte et de la Nubie, 1878.

Historians generally agree that the Great Sphinx was built for the Pharaoh Khafre sometime between 2603-2578 BC. Hieroglyphic texts tell us that Khafre’s father, Pharaoh Khufu, built the Great Pyramid. Khafre went on to construct his own slightly smaller pyramid along with an elaborate complex that includes the Great Sphinx.

Residue of red, yellow and blue pigments suggests that the Sphinx was once brightly painted. Originally cut from the bedrock, today the Sphinx’s original shape has been restored with layers of limestone.

The nose was removed deliberately

Upon examination, the Sphinx’s face shows that rods or chisels were hammered into the nose area which were then used to pry it off. The 1-metre wide nose has still never been found.

There are a number of folk tales that account for what happened to the Sphinx’s nose. The most popular myth regarding the Sphinx’s nose is that it was broken by cannonballs fired by Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, who were in Giza during one of the military battles of the French campaign in Egypt in 1798.

However, a mid-18th century drawing of the Sphinx by Danish Naval Captain and explorer Frederic Louis Norden depicts the statue without a nose. Since this predates Napoleon’s army, it disproves the folk tale.

The Great Sphinx of Giza in Frederic Louis Norden’s, Voyage d’Égypte et de Nubie (1755).

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The 15th-century Arab historian al-Maqrīzī described the loss of the nose to Muhammad Sa’im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa’id al-Su’ada. The story goes that in 1378, Sa’im al-Dahr found the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx for a good harvest, so defaced it as an act of iconoclasm.

The same historian also said that local people believed that the increased sand covering the Giza Plateau was celestial revenge for the act of defacement. It was also later believed by some that the Alexandrian Crusade of 1365 was punishment for the nose being broken off.

In spite of the conjecture surrounding the Sphinx’s nose, one fact is certain. Archaeologist Mark Lehner performed an archaeological study on the Sphinx and concluded that its nose was intentionally broken with instruments sometime between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.

The nose isn’t the only missing part of the Sphinx

It is thought that a ceremonial pharaonic beard was attached to the Sphinx sometime after it was originally constructed. It is thought to have been added later because it didn’t damage the core infrastructure of the Sphinx when it fell off.

There are also a number of holes in the Sphinx, including at the top of its head, and many New Kingdom stelae depict the Sphinx wearing a crown. As a result, it has been theorised that the hole could have been the anchoring point for it.

Over 12,000 headstones jostle for space in this quiet but pretty graveyard, the oldest of which belongs to the scholar Avigdor Karo and dates back to 1439.

In use until 1787, it is believed that there have been many more burials at the Old Jewish Cemetery than denoted by the headstones, probably layered one on top of the other. Amongst the crowded graves lie those of the creator of the golem, Rabbi Loew (d. 1609) and the former mayor of Prague’s Jewish Quarter, Mordechai Maisel (d. 1601).

Old Jewish Cemetery – Prague

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague is among the oldest surviving Jewish burial grounds in the world and, along with the Old-New Synagogue, is the most important site in the Prague Jewish Town.

It is unclear when exactly the graveyard was founded. The oldest gravestone, however, is that of rabbi and poet Avigdor Kara, and is dated to 1439.

From the middle of the 15th century, the gravestones record a continuous timeline of burials. The final gravestone is dated 1787: three years before, Emperor Joseph II banned burials inside the city walls for hygienic reasons.

Because of Jewish custom which doesn’t allow for the abandonment of old graves and the fact that the community weren’t allowed to purchase grounds to expand the cemetery, there are a huge number of graves crammed into a relatively small space.

There are around 100,000 bodies buried there, many of which are marked under a many gravestones which denote bodies that have been stacked 12 layers deep. As a result, the surface of the cemetery is raised several metres higher than the surrounding streets.

The oldest gravestones at the Old Jewish Cemetery are plain. More decorated or ornate gravestones date from the 17th century, with symbolism which corresponds to occupation and reputation, and so on.

Old Jewish Cemetery – Prague

There are many famous people buried at the cemetery. It is possible to pay a little extra for an audio guide, and staff there are very welcoming and will answer any questions you might have.

National Geographic list it among the top ten cemeteries to visit in the world.

Old Jewish Cemetery – Prague

From the centre of Prague, the cemetery is a 30 minute walk via Václavské nám. By car it takes around 15 minutes via the Žitná road. There are also a number of connecting bus and tram routes which depart from Prague, Na Knížecí, every 20 minutes or so.