One of the last thing you expect to see in the middle of an urban paved street is a grave complete with a large tombstone, but that’s exactly what you’re treated to when driving through the Turkish city of Sivas.

Yeni Mahalle Hamzaoğlu is one of the several streets that traverse the relatively new Şarkışla district of Sivas, in central Turkey, but there’s something special about it. At one point, motorists need to make sure that they don’t drive straight into a grave located right in the middle of the asphalt. It’s been there for several years now, but only recently gained national attention, after photos and drone footage went viral on social media.

Photo: Haber

Even though the large tombstone has the inscription “Gariban Martyr Baba” etched into it, no one actually knows who the grave belongs to. In order to build Şarkışla district, home owners in the area were expropriated, and it is believed that the mysterious grave was originally located in someone’s yard. Why the road was built around it, instead of bypassing it by a few meters is another mystery.

The Headman of Kandemir Neighborhood, Ahmet Hark, told Turkish newspaper Haber that it was the stories surrounding the mysterious grave that convinced workers to leave it where it lay, instead of relocating the remains. It is said that the person buried there appeared in the dreams of the last owners of the property it was located on, telling them that the grave was once a sacred altar. The same thing allegedly happened to previous owners, so everyone just left the grave alone, including the workers who built the road.

Locals believe that a martyr or a scholar was buried there, and some visit and bring flowers from time to time. The fact that it is located square in the middle of a road doesn’t seem to bother anyone.