Abstract
The reflection of death concept in the creation of culture and art is various due to factors of religion, culture and period, just like the consciousness of death. This whole consisting of pieces different form each other, but also sim ilar in som e aspects is either the m ost important criterion in the determination of cultural differences, or the m ost outstanding and undeniable evidence on intercultural relations and interaction. The aim of this paper is to read this difference through the comparative sampling of two great empires that may be named as the representatives of Western and Eastern cultures and also Christianity and Islam during contemporary periods and to look for the traces of a probable interaction between them . In this aspect, besides the graves of two powerful dynasties of the Christian West and the Muslim East – the Habsburgs and the Ottomans – in Vienna and Istanbul during the 18th and 19th centuries, cem eteries of that period belonging to common people and also mausoleums and funeral traditions shall be examined in comparison and the religious, and social idea system that has form ed these traditions shall be discussed on these examples.

Keywords
death cult, cem etery, Christianity, Islam , Vienna, Istanbul, Habsburg, Ottoman.