It wasn't until I had picked my way past a wall of burned-out trucks and was more or less stuck between that barrier and the holy tomb people had rioted hours earlier to protect that I realized I had not seen a single cop, security guard, or firefighter since I arrived at Koja Port.
Here, they can visit such holy sites as The Prophet's Mosque and The Holy Tomb.
In an unusual development today, the shrine where Ms. Hashimi's coffin has been scheduled for the traditional march three times around the holy tombs, was surrounded for the first time by dozens of armed militia men under the control of Sayyid Muqtada Sadr, the radical cleric from Najaf who has challenged the moderate line of Shiite religious leadership under Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The site of the now-empty but still-holy tomb abuts the wall of a container yard operated by state-owned PT Pelindo II, separating it from a few acres of open space.
The rebels deployed inside the holiest tombs in Shiite Islam.
On one hand, Mr. Hussein has bestowed favors, donating, for example, hundreds of pounds of gold and silver to slather across the domes of the Shiites' holiest tombs.
The influence of Wahhabism meant that 90% of Islamic monuments, holy places, tombs and mausoleums in the Arabian peninsula were destroyed on the grounds that they were "polytheistic".
Holy Sepulchre, the tomb in which Jesus was buried and the name of the church built on the traditional site of his Crucifixion and burial.
Hamas calls for a "day of rage" which begins before sunrise with Palestinian protestors setting ablaze the Jewish holy site, the Tomb of Joseph, in Nablus.
Throughout their terms in office, and before, all five of Indonesia's presidents have made frequent visits to holy places -- tombs, caves, mountaintops, ancient ruins.
Like the body of the Saviour, the tomb is a "holy of holies".
