Most of the times they leave behind identifiable items on the graves, according to reports appeared in the local media recently.
Abu Rashid had no way to identify the grave of his mother who died about a couple of weeks ago except spraying it with paint. He was following the advice of a friend who did the same when his own mother died.
Abu Rashid's mother’s grave was the last in the row near the northern entry point of Al-Naseem graveyard, but as the layout of cemeteries change frequently, he decided to mark his mother's grave.
Abu Khaled left his own iqal (headdress) on the grave of his 17-year-old son who died in a car accident.
The iqal is still lying there but the fear is that it will completely degraded, making it hard for Khaled’s father to recognize the grave again.
Local residents whose family members are buried in cemeteries called for numbering the graves. They noted that some families would leave empty water bottles, juice cans and pieces of cloth on the graves to identify them.
"This is a gross violation of the sanctity of the dead and the graves," a Saudi resident from Riyadh said. He did not want to be identified.
Grave visitors also noted that some people were spraying paint on the grave to identify them. They said though the paint might fade with time, it was still a better solution than the clothes and cans left on the graves.
They called on the authorities to remove such items from the graves and give them numbers instead. They noted that this practice was not limited to Riyadh alone but was spreading to other areas of the Kingdom.
