Monday, August 07, 2006

THE TOMB OF THE KINGS IN JERUSALEM -- YNet Travel has a description:
In memoriam: The Tomb of the Kings

The Tomb of the Kings, considered one of the largest and most luxurious tombs in the area, has long been popular with tourists

Ron Peled


Imagine a magnificent burial plot covering several acres with an enormous courtyard at the entrance, many pyramids and decorations, stairs that lead to a plaza, a burial cave with an impressive burial stone, and wells and channels that bring rain waters to them. Now imagine that this is all carved in stone and has been in Jerusalem for 2,000 years.


[...]


Today the tomb is owned by the French, and a French flag flies over it. Enter the site through a metal door on the corner of Nablus Road and Salah a-Din Street, near the American Colony Hotel and the Justice Ministry. The tomb has no formal visiting hours, so just knock hard on the door or ring the bell. Entrance is NIS 3.

[...]

Josephus, who described the tomb in the first century C.E., tells of a queen named Helena who came to Jerusalem from Adiabene in Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Her family converted to Judaism and built a palace, apparently in the area of the City of David, at the end of the Second Temple Period. They also donated treasures to the Temple and helped the people in times of famine.


Josephus adds that Helena’s son Monobaz had her remains and those of his brother buried at a distance of “three stadia from Jerusalem,” and that this burial cave belongs to Helena and her family. It was medieval Europeans who mistakenly identified the tomb as belonging to the Kings of Judah. The kings’ burial place is mentioned in the Bible, but it has never been found.

[...]
BiblePlaces.com has an article with photos.

UPDATE (14 August): A reader who wishes to remain anonymous e-mails:
Re: the so called Tomb of the Kings in Jerusalem

I visited the Tomb sometime last fall with a group from the Albright Institute, which is just down the street from the tomb. I doubt if getting access is as easy as pounding on the gate. We had to get an appointment - graciously arranged by the director of the Albright. A better option might be to contact the French consulate ahead of time.

The link that you give does have some great pictures, but the first caption "Entrance and Mikvot" is incorrect. There are no Mikvot at the site. The water system that you can see in the picture is designed to prevent rain water from running down into the tombs. You can clearly see two cisterns with water channels leading to them. (Actually, the two holes might be connected into one cistern; I do not remember exactly.) If you look closely there is another cistern on the right hand wall. There are also channels in the staircase that direct the water off of the stairs and over to the right-hand side into the water channels visible in the picture. It's a clever system, possibly added after the first rain storm flooded the tombs, but no Mikvot.

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