While visiting the site of the future Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa, the Israeli psychic known for bending cutlery with his mind noticed a pile of rubble that turned out to be the remnants of a 19th-century soap factory.
“I felt psychically that there was something under the dirt, in the ground,” Geller said. “I got the Israel Antiquities Authority’s permission to get rid of the rubble and stones and the dust, and lo and behold, we discovered an ancient soap factory.”
A year ago, a realtor showed Geller a building from the time of the Ottoman empire. “I said wow,” Geller told Haaretz. “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.” Geller then bought the building to house his museum.
“As the work proceeded, I noticed a pile of refuse on one side. I intuited that there was something hidden there,” sais Geller.
Said Dr. Yoav Arbel, a Jaffa expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The site was well preserved and included troughs for mixing raw materials for the soap, a large cauldron, a hearth, water cisterns and underground vaults that were used for storage.” The manufacturing process was easily discerned from the finds. According to Arbel, some small operations still make soap the same way today.
The Uri Geller Museum is scheduled to open in about a year.
Read more on Haaretz