Specific Photo:
Another shot, showing how closely packed the tombstones are within the cemetery. I believe the first person buried in the cemetery was buried in the 1400's, with the last person being buried in the 1780s or so.

General History:
The Jewish people were not treated very well in Prague during the last 7 centuries or so. Back in the 1300's, the church had a council wherein they decided that Christ's death was their responsibility (I guess they overlooked the fact that his birth was also partially because of them also). Anyway, this gave them the opportunity to persecute the Jews with an official cause.

They stuck them in the "slum" of Prague, forcing them to wear jewish identifying marks (Star of David, large pointed 'dunce' hats, etc).

One of the consequences of forcing them to live in the slums was overpopulation. There was not enough land to go around for everyone, so they only had a small cemetery in which to bury their dead for 4-500 years. They did have a different cemetery initially, but the land proved to be so fertile and valuable that the king took it from them and created a public square with gardens on the spot.

Anyway, burying their dead for so long in one spot caused a few issues...first, the tomb stones were packed too closely together to even be able to walk through (as seen above); second, the people had to be buried on top of each other. After a while they started having to import dirt, and eventually the ground became built up much higher than street level. Currently, ground level within the cemetery is about 12-14 ft about street level, with some areas being as high as 25 ft higher than it used to be.

Specific Photo:
Another shot, showing how closely packed the tombstones are within the cemetery. I believe the first person buried in the cemetery was buried in the 1400's, with the last person being buried in the 1780s or so.

General History:
The Jewish people were not treated very well in Prague during the last 7 centuries or so. Back in the 1300's, the church had a council wherein they decided that Christ's death was their responsibility (I guess they overlooked the fact that his birth was also partially because of them also). Anyway, this gave them the opportunity to persecute the Jews with an official cause.

They stuck them in the "slum" of Prague, forcing them to wear jewish identifying marks (Star of David, large pointed 'dunce' hats, etc).

One of the consequences of forcing them to live in the slums was overpopulation. There was not enough land to go around for everyone, so they only had a small cemetery in which to bury their dead for 4-500 years. They did have a different cemetery initially, but the land proved to be so fertile and valuable that the king took it from them and created a public square with gardens on the spot.

Anyway, burying their dead for so long in one spot caused a few issues...first, the tomb stones were packed too closely together to even be able to walk through (as seen above); second, the people had to be buried on top of each other. After a while they started having to import dirt, and eventually the ground became built up much higher than street level. Currently, ground level within the cemetery is about 12-14 ft about street level, with some areas being as high as 25 ft higher than it used to be.