Across Türkiye and Syria, devastated families have been forced to bury their loved ones in mass graves, sometimes forgoing burial rites, as the death toll from two powerful earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks continues to rise.
With more than 41,000 dead across both countries, local sources in Syria described bodies lining the streets, as hope faded for the missing still buried under the rubble.
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Workers preparing bodies for burial in Türkiye said they were overwhelmed by the sheer number.
With forensic doctors stretched to the limit, relatives were called on to identify bodies lined up in stadiums or car parks.
Footage from Türkiye's Hatay province showed body bags lined up and being lowered into mass graves that were then filled in by excavators.
Abdelazeem Ibrahim, who volunteered to help families organise burial procedures in Reyhanli, said most funerals were for large numbers of people — sometimes entire families with only one survivor left to lay them to rest.
While coffins were shipped in from as far away as Istanbul, in many areas concrete bricks or wooden planks served to divide the body bags.
Pieces of debris from fallen buildings were used as headstones in both Syria and Türkiye in rapidly expanding cemeteries and makeshift graveyards.
Locals from some of the worst-affected areas said many graves were identified by numbers.
Others had items of clothing worn by the victims wrapped around headstones to help relatives identify their loved ones.
Counting the dead
The death count that started in the hundreds passed 35,418 deaths in Türkiye and 5,800 in Syria on Wednesday as more bodies were recovered from under the rubble.
These numbers come from a count of recovered bodies by rescue workers in some areas and medical staff in others.
There has so far been no estimate released on the number of missing, but the United Nations warned on Monday that the death toll could still double to more than 60,000.
Ismail al Abdullah, a volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defence Force, also known as the White Helmets, is part of a team of rescuers working around the clock to search the rubble.
"After 70 hours we stopped looking for survivors because people who are beneath the rubble might die not just because of injuries but because of the lack of water and starvation," he said.
"Now we are looking for bodies."
He said in Syria, the number of dead and injured are counted by rescue teams like his.
In Türkiye, the figures were tallied as part of a coordinated effort by Turkish authorities, with updates announced daily by the government.
Speaking from Adana, Dr Flavio Salio, the World Health Organization's Global Network Leader of Emergency Medical Teams, said search and rescue operations were continuing in certain areas.
"It is vital obviously to continue looking for possible survivors under the rubble, as well as increasing medical services in areas where search and rescue efforts are continuing," he said.
Volunteers provide funeral aid
With so many bodies, traditional funeral rites have had to be forgone in many areas, depriving grief-stricken families of a proper farewell.
The towns and cities affected by the earthquake in both countries are predominantly Muslim.
Local sources in Syria and Türkiye said mosques in many areas had collapsed and those still standing were housing homeless survivors.
According to Islam, to prepare for burial the hair and body must be washed at least three times.
The body is then wrapped in a shroud and buried as soon as possible — usually on the same day as the person's death.
Final prayers are conducted by an Imam or someone with the knowledge and experience required.
But in many areas isolated by the earthquake, footage showed bodies being taken from the rubble, wrapped in blankets or bed sheets and transported directly for burial.
The IDDEF — a Turkish organisation that provides international support for education and funds Islamic schools all over the world — has turned its efforts toward aid, including funeral aid.
Speaking from Istanbul, IDDEF representative Omer Hascicek said as of Tuesday they had sent 137 trucks full of aid, including food, water, generators, fuel, 34,000 blankets, 250 tents and 10 tons of burial cloth to earthquake-stricken areas of Türkiye.
"We're able to give 14,000 people soup and breakfast every morning," Mr Hascicek told the ABC, adding they had about 600 personnel assisting in the field.
Those personnel include many women trained in washing and preparing female bodies for burial.
"And most of our employees are people who have experience in Islamic knowledge. So the people who we've actually sent out into the field, if need be, they can serve as Imams to lead the funeral prayers," he said.
Another item IDDEF was supplying at the request of many women was hijabs in addition to warm clothing.
"For a lot of Muslim women it's difficult," he said, describing how many ran from their homes in the dark of night as the buildings collapsed, leaving them with only the clothes they had been sleeping in.
"Thankfully we were able to send out the necessary clothes in that regard too, along with three truckloads of winter clothing."
Fleeing war 'only to die in an earthquake'
Syrian photojournalist Muhammed Said has been documenting the destruction in his home town of Ariha in Syria's opposition-held province of Idlib, where aftershocks continued to wreak havoc.
He described mass burials — some graves marked with names, some with numbers and others buried with no identification.
Survivors, the majority now homeless, were spread out on the streets.
A Spanish rescue team had arrived to help, but for most of those buried under rubble, it was too late.
"The situation is bad. What people want more than food is a place to sleep," he said, adding that some tents had been set up, but there weren't enough resources for families to survive the winter temperatures.
The bodies that kept piling up were not just of those who died in the town, but thousands of bodies of Syrian refugees were arriving from Türkiye on the back of trucks.
"In Türkiye, there are many Syrians who fled the war only to die there in an earthquake," Mr Said told the ABC.
"Yesterday I saw 1,000 dead people who came from Türkiye to Syria, all of them Syrians."
He shared a list of 126 names of refugees killed in Türkiye and sent back in body bags from the city of Ariha alone, which had a pre-war population of less than 40,000.
Hundreds of bodies sent back remained unidentified, while the families of many living in areas under Syrian government control were prevented from crossing into opposition areas to receive the remains of loved ones.
Many more Syrians were still buried "among the rubble in Türkiye", he said.
