Huge £37m network of 22,000 catacombs being built under Jerusalem after city ran out of burial plots
The new graveyards stretch half a mile down and have been excavated under the Holy City for two years
A HUGE bee-hive like network of catacombs is being built underneath Jerusalem as an innovative solution to city's shortage of burial plots.
Tunnels stretching half a mile under the holy city have been excavated over the past two years in a £37 million project creating 22,000 new graves.
And the subterranean cemetery is connected to the world above by a lift.
"We came up with this idea to provide a solution under the cemetery with burial structures, but also hidden from the eye," said Arik Glazer, chief executive of Rolzur Tunneling. "There is not enough land and we take advantage of this."
Glazer called the planned city of the dead deep below ground both aesthetic and respectful.
Israel, for instance, has been at the forefront of a global movement building vertical cemeteries.
Cemetery overcrowding presents a challenge in cramped cities and among religions that forbid or discourage cremation, such as Judaism.
Glazer said that his project also required rabbinic approval. Israel's rabbinic authorities oversee burial practices for the country's Jewish majority.
He said one of Israel's chief rabbis even visited the site.
"Everyone really appreciated it," he said, saying it revived a practice that was popular centuries ago. "Burials like this existed in ancient times, 1,600 to 2,000 years ago, and we have we have revived this tradition because of the lack of burial space," he said.
When it is done, families will be able to enter the tunnels on foot or with elevators. Platforms will be built at various levels to allow easy access to the stacks of graves.
"It's the first of its kind in the world, at least in the modern world," Glazer said.
Prior to the construction of the catacombs, the Mount of Olives in the city's east was the country's main burial ground.
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