Old Jewish Cemetery Of Karnobat

Source: http://www.heritageabroad.gov/Portals/0/Reports%20and%20Surveys/Bulgaria%20Jewish%20sites%202011%20(1).pdf?ver=2016-02-24-124025-147 A Jewish community was first established in Karnobat in the 16th century. The expansive Jewish cemetery is the largest pre-20th century cemetery preserved in Bulgaria. In the oldest section of the cemetery, flat gravestones – many with long beautifully carved epitaphs – cover an open hillside. A large farm nestles against the cemetery, and sheep graze on parts of the grounds, keeping the grass short. Other parts of the cemetery are seasonally overgrown, but most of it is passable. Other than the use of the grounds for pasture, it is not clear if the farm has in other ways encroached upon the cemetery boundaries. "Shalom" provided financial assistance for a team from the Archeology Institute to inventory the gravestones and to re-erect some. The inventory attracted the interest of the Diaspora Institute at the Tel Aviv University, which has filmed all of the stones. With the assistance of the Archeology Institute, "Shalom" managed to prevent construction of a highway across this cemetery.