The Borj Ali Rais Ottoman fortress is visible from most places in the cemetery.

[1] Visiting the cemetery is a duty during Aid el Fitr at the end of Ramadan.

Family members at this time clean and paint the tombs, which face Mecca.

In 1911, mass protests known as the Jellaz Affair demonstrations took place at the cemetery against the French, triggered by land registration and entitlement disputes.

[2] A bloody confrontation took place after the burial of the wife of an eager propagandist of naturalisation and resulted in the death of 39 people, nine of them French and five Italian.