Dear friends, I read all of the very thoughtful answers and wanted to add a few comments. For starters... Mr. John says that "the Bible makes no mention of direction" as if he is an expert on the Biblical verses relating to this subject. I have spent the last 13 years studying specifically the resurrection of the dead in the Bible and how it relates to this subject and would strongly disagree with this statement. The Bible does refer to the return of our Savior as coming from the east and also as returning in a manner like the rising sun (that comes from the east). For those who have read the writings of Martin Luther (early church reformer) you would read of his passionate view of the future return of our Lord and Savior who would return from the east like the rising sun and raise the dead to life (see Ephesians 5:14). Martin Luther wrote his writings rougly 500 years ago. But for now... a few verses.... In the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel has a vision of the Glory of the Lord in the last days returning to dwell on earth... "Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the Glory of the God of Isarel coming from the east." Ezek 43:1 The last prophecy of hope of the Old Testament by the prophet Malachi... "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." Mal 4:2 (a vision of the resurrection of the dead) The first phophecy of the New Testament (chronologically speaking).... "...because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death..." Luke 1:78,79 These are just a sampling of a whole page of verses that I have where our future Savior is likened to "the rising sun" that will return from the east in all of his glorious splendor. I think it odd that one of the above persons might then say that this concept is nowhere in the Bible as if he actually knows what is in the Bible from cover to cover. I do not want to be negative but I do want to sharply disagree with the idea that nowhere in the Bible does it mention our Savior as returning from the east or like the rising sun. Not only so, but I would disagree with some of the comments about grave directions, the history, etc. Having been a helicopter pilot (and airplane) for the last twenty years in the US, I have always been amazed that older cemeteries 99% of the time faced due east (we fly roughly 1000 feet over the ground where this is clearly visible). I was so impressed with this (having flown all over the USA numerous times working with various jobs and delivering helicopters coast to coast), that we would often check our navigation by it. Not for accuracy, but just for general direction. While flying for Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville for 5 years, I often showed this to the various nurses that flew with me along with familiarizing them with a few of the verses from the Bible that pertained to our Savior returning from the east, like the rising sun. I have been noticing this phenomenon literally all over the US, for nearly 20 years now in the older cemeteries up until the turn of the century. There were several comments above about how graves face random directions just as often as they face east. Another person commented on how he worked at a cemetary (or something similar) and that graves are laid out in plots not relevant to east. I would radically agree and yet disagree. You can take an arial photo of nearly every single cemetary in the larger cities in the US, (I have examples of Birmingham, Dallas, Nashville, Denver, etc.) and you will clearly see that the pre turn of the century grave sections (over 100 years old) all clearly face east, and then all of the ones after 1900 (roughly speaking) then begin to face in random directions. If you walk into the newer sections of cemeteries in nearly all of the major cities, all the new sections are random as relevant to maximizing occupancy (and no vision for the things discussed), but when you step into the old sections, you will clearly see that the graves face east. I have found this general principle to apply to most of the cemeteries I have visited in South America, Italy, Scotland, New Zealand, and others. Not only so, but I have collected hundreds of photographs of graves from the pre 1900's and their epitaths that support this view. In other words, modern epitaths have nice quotes about how good the person was, how they are in heaven, and how much we will miss them. Older epitaths quite often read RIP (Rest in peace), and express their hope in a future day when their Savior will return to earth (like the rising sun) and will raise the dead to life. What we are witnessing with this grave orientation phenomenon is a shift in theology from the pre 1900's vs post 1900's. Before 1900, it was very common (as a Christian) to believe that the dead slept in death until the "last day", and as such they waited intently on a future Redeeemer (see Job 19:25/Job14:12/Psalm 49:15/John 6:39,40,44,54/Acts 23:6,24:15,21,26:6... and countless others). After roughly 1900 though, we have adopted a more "palatable" (sp?) form of Christianity where we now assure everyone in our churches that they will immediately go to heaven when they die (not having to sleep in death). As such, "modern believers" have no interest in the resurrection of the dead or even a future glorious Savior returning to raise them from the dead for now they believe they will not have to sleep in death. (for more examples of sleeping in death see Isaiah 57:1-2, John 11:11-14,21-26,1 Cor 15:6,20, and more. Our modern cemeteries reflect the shift in our modern theology and this can be easily documented comparing past doctrine and past epitaths to modern doctrine and modern epitaths. For those who claim that graves are merely random, it is probably because their exposure is limited to primarily newer cemeteries and their newer sections. I have been studying this subject and many others that relate to it for over 13 years, including the Egyptians and their belief in a future Sun God that would raise the dead, and various other cultures. I have written a large manuscript on the subject that illustrates how this future hope in the resurrection of the dead was the hope of the Bible. I am not trying to sell this book and it is not even in print yet (hopefully within the year). But the website is www.thekingofglory.com if anyone is interested in about a year. The book is titled "You Must be Born Again" and is all about the resurrection of the dead and the future hope of a Savior who will return from the East "like the rising sun" to raise the dead to life. It contains infinately more information on this subject than can be placed in this short message box. It is because of this simple concept that our Lord Jesus himself refers to himself as "the bright and morning star" Rev 22:16, or in other words, "the rising sun" Mal 4:2 & Luke 1:78,79. For those who are not sure.... the big "bright morning star" called "the sun" rises in the east..... God Bless, Christopher Winston "But for you who revere my Name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." Mal 4:2