Workers are completing three years of labor on a massive subterranean necropolis under a mountain just outside Jerusalem. It’s comprised of one mile, or about 1.5 kilometers, of tunnels with sepulchers for interring the dead, the AP reports.
Up above, the Har Hamenuchot Cemetery dominates hillsides above the highway leading into Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
In October, the cemetery’s management plans to open the first section of a sprawling catacomb complex which, once completed, will provide 23,000 gravesites for an increasingly crowded country.
Land is in short supply in Israel, and Jewish and Muslim burial customs require interring the dead in the ground and prohibit cremation.
The hilltop cemetery on the edge of Jerusalem is almost at capacity, with nearly a quarter million graves. The first underground section opening in October will have capacity for 8,000. The remaining sections are slated to open in the coming years.
Even in the blazing summer heat, the labyrinthine vaults maintain their steady year-round temperature of 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit).
The entire project cost an estimated $50 million and took just over three years to complete.
