Story highlights Demand for burial spots in Jerusalem is extremely high

The city has embarked on a $50 million project to build a huge underground cemetery

The underground cemetery will bring back a centuries-old method of burial

Jerusalem (CNN) In Jerusalem's largest cemetery the deceased have a need that the living cannot fulfill: more space.

The Givat Shaul cemetery, which sprawls across a hilltop on the northwestern edge of the city, contains more than 200,000 burial spots, and nearly every one is full, marked with a carved headstone and adorned with flowers and memorial candles.

Burial spots cover nearly every acre of the cemetery, separated only by access roads and walkways. The graves form a neatly organized pattern across the entire area.

Artist's rendering of the completed underground cemetery, showing graves on the floor and in the wall

Terracing the cemetery was the first way to create more space, with three-story structures dramatically increasing the available area. But even those spots are nearly full, since demand for burial in Jerusalem is so high.

Jewish prophecy says the dead will rise from their graves after the coming of the Messiah, and those closest to Jerusalem will be resurrected first.

Read More