A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact definition is not unanimously agreed upon. Mass graves are usually created after many people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. Although mass graves can be used during major conflicts such as war and crime, in modern times they may be used after a famine, epidemic, or natural disaster. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control. In such cases, there is often a breakdown of the social infrastructure that would enable proper identification and disposal of individual bodies.
Mass grave of 26 victims of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, excavated in 2014
The mass grave of the German troops who fell in the Battle of Hyvinkää in 1918 during the Finnish Civil War in Hyvinkää, Finland
Mass grave of Spanish Civil War victims in El Soleràs
View over the Nyabarongo River where Tutsi victims were thrown in 1994, outside Kigali, Rwanda.
A grave is a location where a dead body is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries.
Grave with burial vault awaiting coffin
The Steinbeck family graves in the Hamilton plot at the Salinas cemetery in California, United States
Grave with a cross with nails in Evros, Greece
Grave of Catherine Månsdotter, the queen of Sweden, at the Turku Cathedral in Turku, Finland
