From dream to reality: The history of Mount Herzl as Israel's National Cemetery

In a blog post last week, the IDF detailed the history of Mount Herzl as the National Cemetery and burial place of Zionist founder Theodore Herzl in commemoration of Remembrance Day and Independence Day.

Three months before the opening of the National Cemetery, the body of Theodor Herzl was transported from its original resting place in Vienna to the then-unnamed hill in Jerusalem.

The hill was selected after Mount Scopus was made a non-option during the Independence War; it also faces the Mount of Olives, making it a fitting location.

"On one hill, there will be the grave of the creator of the Zionist vision and the cemetery of the achievers of Zionism,"  Yosef Dekel, founder of the IDF's commemoration unit, said, describing the logic behind the proximity of the two.

The National Cemetery was established on Mount Herzl in November 1949 by the decision of the Defense Ministry.

The symbolism, uniqueness, and importance of Mount Herzl

From the beginning, the goal of the National Cemetery was to be "the largest and most magnificent in the country."

"The symbolism, uniqueness, and importance of Mount Herzl were ensured through the location of the site at the top of a hill surrounded by three hills in the forest and its distance from the daily hustle and bustle of the city," David Kroyanker explained in his book "Architecture in Jerusalem".

Although, over the years, the city got closer to the mountain, the cemetery remained quiet and isolated. Its height still provides a vantage point to the distant surroundings.

As plots were added and the cemetery began to flow down the top of the mountain, steps had to be built to provide level ground.

Like the original mountain face, the rocky motif was kept, and the walls of the terraces were paved with stones in a "natural" arrangement, with some of the rocks protruding from the wall.

In his book Positioning the Memory, Maoz Azariahu notes that the architecture of the terraces was "a function of the interrelationship between the types of stones that were used to build the walls and the tombs."

Traditionally, a new section is added for each war or major operation, but this time, due to the overload, two new sections were opened so that multiple funerals could be held at the same time. A third was opened after one of them had already been filled.

Nearly 16 funerals were held daily on Mount Herzl since the beginning of the war.

A place that had once been slow and unchanging has now become dynamic and hurried, within two weeks, over 150 new graves were dug, reshaping the very mountain it was built on.

While many come to visit for a variety of reasons, including school trips, many will be coming for the unending stream of funerals now occurring on Mount Herzl.