?Is the tomb of Eve really located in the city of Jeddah
Jeddah is one of the most important and oldest Saudi cities. Today, it is the first destination for tourists wishing to visit Saudi Arabia. It is also a financial and business center in the Kingdom, in part because it is the largest port on the Red Sea.
In fact, its distinguished location on the shore of the Red Sea was the reason for its establishment in the first place, as it is believed that a group of fishermen established the city in the first millennium BC when they settled in it and made it a starting point for fishing trips, and the historical transformation that led the city to prosperity and growth was the decision of Caliph Othman bin Affan to take As a port of Mecca.
Jeddah city location on the map.
But it remains a very confusing matter why the city was called by this name, and while many believe that the name is in fact “Jeddah” - with the addition of the gym - which means in Arabic the seashore, and this name was mentioned by the writer and author of manuscripts Yaqout Al-Hamawi in the dictionary of countries, as mentioned by Ibn Battuta in His journey, but there is another opinion that says that the name of the city is actually pronounced Fateh al-Jim, meaning “grandmother”, and this name is attributed to the mother and grandmother of humanity, which is “Eve”!
In downtown Jeddah today; The archaeological neighborhoods of Jeddah are located such as Al-Amariya neighborhood, and the historical Jeddah neighborhood, which is known locally as Jeddah Al-Balad. Hawa’, located in the Al-Amariya neighborhood, where there is a small sign on the wall of this cemetery that reads: “Our Mother Eve.”
Inside this cemetery there is a tomb believed to be the tomb of Eve, and the circulating stories say that it was a very huge tomb, it was 120 meters long, 3 meters wide and 6 meters high, but the situation of the grave deteriorated greatly during the last century, due to the Saudi authorities and the Wahhabi belief. Faisal destroyed the tomb in 1928, after which the Saudi authorities neglected the tomb and did not care for it, perhaps due to the Wahhabi belief that great interest in the graves will lead to paganism, idolatry and polytheism. She closed it and buried it with cement by a decision of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue.
Eve cemetery in Jeddah.
naturally; The stories and opinions about this tomb and about the fact that it is the tomb of Eve vary a lot, as some of the city’s residents say that Eve originally descended in this city, while Adam descended in India and met at Mount Arafat, which some think took his name because Adam and Eve met there, so I knew him and knew her Many attribute this story to the geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hamdani, and this tomb was mentioned by many historians.
In his translation of the Book of One Thousand and One Nights; The explorer and orientalist (Sir Richard Francis Burton) mentioned viewing the tomb, and the writer (Angelo Pesci) mentioned the location of the tomb in his book Jeddah: Portrait of an Arabian City. The scientist and geographer Al-Idrisi was among the first to mention the tomb in the twelfth century, and the geographer The traveler Ibn Jubayr mentioned him after his visit to Jeddah, where he mentioned the existence of a place with a very old dome in Jeddah, which is said to be the tomb of Eve, and the traveler Ibn Al-Majawar and the historian Ibn Khalkan mentioned the existence of the tomb.
Tomb of Eve in 1913.Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Lebanese thinker, historian and traveler, Amin Al-Rihani, states that the Emir of Hejaz and Sharif of Mecca, Aoun Al-Rafiq, tried to demolish some graves, including the grave of Eve, but this caused popular anger, to the extent that the consuls of foreign countries objected to the matter and told him: “You have what you want in the saints, but Eve is a mother.” All the people, and we are protesting against the demolition of her shrine.” So he changed his mind, but was apparently dissatisfied. “But do you think our mother was that long?” If stupidity is universal, then leave the grave as it is.”
Of course, there is no concrete scientific evidence about the authenticity of the fact that this tomb contains the remains of Eve, and even the validity of its existence in the first place, and the opinions of contemporary researchers vary about the history of this shrine, but many of them believe that it is nothing more than a local legend, and while many pilgrims visited the cemetery in Previously - some even used to buy some of the cemetery's soil to be blessed with it - but interest in this grave has decreased today, even among the people of Jeddah, because of the Wahhabi religious teachings, which see the necessity of not paying attention to the graves.
Sources: Copied from the Atlas obscura website
Commenting on the topic:
Although there is no scientific evidence confirming the authenticity of the narration that says that "Eve" was buried in the cemetery of "Umna Hawa" located in the Saudi city of Jeddah... this legend exists and is still passed down between generations. The existence of scientific and historical sources confirming this false narration, and it is devoid of rational logic and scientific argument. Is it possible that a grave with a length of 120 m, a width of 3 m, and a height of 6 m is undoubtedly the tomb of a huge dinosaur and not of a human being. Note that ancient civilizations never mentioned Adam as a prophet and as a person, nor Eve, nor her grave. These are just Israeli narrations, and the Arabs adopted them and started repeating them to the common people, and their truthfulness is for the naive and the ignorant.