The Tombs of the Kings

2nd in a series…Jerusalem underground

It is likely that we will be staying at the Olive Tree hotel In East Jerusalem…The tomb complex is just a couple of blocks from this hotel.

The Tombs of the Kings are a collection of rock cut



Map of the Tomb of the Kings

tombs in East Jerusalem, 820 meters north of the Old City in Al-Shaykh Jarrah suburb of East Jerusalem

The grandeur of the site lead to the mistaken belief that the tombs had once been the burial place of the kings of Judah, hence the name Tombs of the Kings, but the tombs are now known to be the tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene.  Queen Helena chose the site to bury her son Isates and others of her dynasty. In 1847 the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem started excavation at the site. The excavation was then followed in 1863 by French archaeologists The tombs are located underneath a piece of land that has a small stone house on top of it. The house was built by and inhabited by a Muslim family called up until mid 1990s, when they have been prevented from going back to Jerusalem due to the occupation. The tomb was described by the Greek geographer Pausanias as the second most beautiful tomb in the world (after the tomb of Mausolus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world). there is a 30 foot wide staircase (23 steps) that was originally paved and leads to a forecourt. The rain water is collected in baths, which are carved in the steps, and carried via a channel system to the water wells. At the bottom of the stairs there is a gate that leads to a courtyard that is roughly 75 feet square

The entrance to the tombs is in this courtyard. The tombs are entered  through a rock-cut arch (facade) in the western side. 75 foot facade was crowned with three pyramids, which no longer exist, and decorated with reliefs of grapes, plexus leaves, acorns and fruit, reflecting the Greek architectural style. The tombs are arranged on two levels around a central chamber, with four rooms upstairs and three rooms downstairs. The central chamber itself is entered from the courtyard via an antechamber that goes down into a dimly lit maze of chambers. The access from the antechamber to the exterior courtyard could be sealed closed by rolling a round stone across it, and the stone still remains at the site. Two of the eight burial chambers have arcosolia, resting places made of a bench with an arch over it. Some of the arcosolia have triangular niches where oil lamps were placed to give light during the burial process.



The Sarcophagus of Helena of Adiabene

The two most common types of tombs in the first century BC are found in this tomb complex. Shaft tombs were long narrow shafts in which the deceased were placed and closed with a stone slab which probably had the name of the occupant inscribed on it. The tombs are now empty, but previously housed a number of sarcophagus; they were excavated by a French archaeological mission headed by Louis Felicien de Saulcy, who took them back to France, where they are exhibited at the Louvre. The Sarcophagus of Helena of Adiabene rests at the Israeli museum.