- Construction has begun on huge cemetery, to be built beneath a mountain
- The $50million network of tunnels will provide another 22,000 burial plots
- It offers a solution for Israel, which is struggling to find room for its burials
Construction has begun on an ambitious new project in the heart of Israel's holy land - an underground city of the dead where a vast network of modern-day catacombs intersect beneath a mountain.
Putting a modern twist on a practice popular in ancient societies, the subterranean crypts will feature a remarkable network of elevators and intersecting tunnels that will accommodate another 22,000 burial plots.
The pioneering idea came about as the nation's plot shortage showed no sign of abating and a burial society acted on an idea it claimed to have been considering for the past 25 years.
A group of mourners carry the body of a deceased relative at Har HaMenuchot Cemetery, where tunnels are being bored into the mountain
Pictured left and right is the above ground cemetery at the site, where 150,000 people already lie buried
Work has now begun on the $50 million project at the site of Har HaMenuchot Cemetery, Israel's largest cemetery where 150,000 people already lie buried above ground.
Hananya Shachar, director of the Jerusalem Jewish Community Burial Society, told The Washington Post: 'We need our land for the living and not for the dead.
'Now we’ve got the drilling equipment, the know-how and the means, so we said, "Let’s go for it".’
The project has been funded by the pre-sale of burial plots, mostly to overseas Jews, while it will be free to Israelis and covered by their insurance.
Drilling and boring beneath the mountain is already under way, with space on the mountaintop's existing cemetery scare.
Built in 1951, Har Hamenuchot has continually expanded in size to become the country's largest cemetery.
Prior to its creation, the Mount of Olives in the city's east was the country's main burial ground.
The new underground catacombs will offer space for another 22,000 burial plots, its creators say
The modern day crypt will use elevators to carry mourners to their loved ones' graves
Such is its need for room to bury its dead, Israel is at the forefront of vertical solutions and advocates of the crypt being constructed in Har HaMenuchot say the room provided going underground offers endless possibilities.
High rises featuring plots stacked atop one another are now widely embraced in Israel.
After some initial hesitations, and rabbinical rulings that made the practice kosher, Israel's ultra-Orthodox burial societies have embraced the concept as the most effective Jewish practice in an era when most of the cemeteries in major population centers are packed full.
The Yarkon Cemetery on the outskirts of Tel Aviv remains the country's best example.
As the primary cemetery for the greater Tel Aviv area, its traditional burial grounds are at near capacity with 110,000 graves stretched across 150 acres.
But thanks to an array of 30 planned vertical structures, the cemetery will be able to provide 250,000 more graves without taking up any more land, giving the region another 25 years of breathing room.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3089099/Jerusalem-s-underground-city-dead-Israel-begins-50million-construction-vast-catacombs-22-000-crypts-elevators-city-runs-cemetery-plots.html#ixzz3agL5Cxc6
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