A Home for 144,000

Near Jaffa Gate you will find Mamilla, an antique Muslim cemetery with tombs dating back to the 13th century.

At the beginning of the century, a rich Dutch Countess ordered the construction of a large building right next to the cemetery. The building was massive and its stones were well cut.

Nevertheless, the countess did not intend to live in it, or for others to occupy it. What was the building for, then? We can find the answer in the seventh Chapter of John's Revelations.

Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying,

"Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.

"And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel….

The strange countess was convinced that thousands of "sealed" people were soon to arrive in Jerusalem and she wanted them to have a roof over their heads….

The building was never completed and now houses a supermarket.