Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem): Difference between revisions

On May 15, May 2019, Hekdesh, a Jewish organisation (''Association Hekdesh du Tombeau des rois''), hired [[Gilles-William Goldnadel]], a French lawyer, and took the French government to court. Goldnadel tried to prove that the site, after being purchased in 1878 by a French-Jewish woman, Berthe Amélie Bertrand, or by the brothers Péreire, French-Jewish bankers, was left to the French state on condition that the Jews would preserve the right to visit the site (see below at [[#History|History]]).<ref name=Haaretz19>[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-french-consulate-opens-disputed-second-temple-site-in-east-jerusalem-1.7418907 French consulate opens disputed Second Temple site in East Jerusalem], Nir Hasson for [[Haaretz]], 28 June 2019</ref><ref name=FigaroJan>[https://www.lefigaro.fr/arts-expositions/2019/01/27/03015-20190127ARTFIG00021--jerusalem-les-juifs-ultra-orthodoxes-reclament-l-acces-au-tombeau-des-rois.php À Jérusalem, les juifs ultra-orthodoxes réclament l'accès au Tombeau des rois], Le Figaro and Agence France Presse, 27 January 2019, accessed 15 May 2020</ref> Goldnadel also hopes to reclaim the sarcophagus of queen Helena of Adiabene, presently housed at the [[Louvre]].<ref name=FigaroMay>[http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/des-rabbins-veulent-chasser-la-france-du-tombeau-des-rois-20190516 Des rabbins israéliens veulent chasser la France du Tombeau des rois], Thierry Oberlé for Le Figaro, 16 May 2019</ref>

On June 27, 2019, the French consulate in Jerusalem reopened the site to visitors purchasing tickets in advance.<ref name=Haaretz19/>.</ref> The site was closed after protests at the site by ultra-Orthodox Jews who wanted to pray there, because they said it is the burial place of important historical individuals, among them the father-in-law of Rabbi Akiva.<ref name=ArutzSheva/>. As of May 2024, the site was under renovation.

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 ''in-situ''. In the first century CE, a "secret mechanism" operated by water pressure moved the stone.<ref>cf. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' (on [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]], 8.16.4–5), where the author writes: "[8.16.4] I know many wonderful tombs, and will mention two of them, the one at [[Halicarnassus]] (i.e. [[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]]) and one in the '''land of the Hebrews'''. The one at Halicarnassus was made for [[Mausolus]], king of the city, and it is of such vast size, and so notable for all its ornament, that the Romans in their great admiration of it call remarkable tombs in their country ''Mausolea'' (i.e. [[mausoleum]]). [8.16.5] The Hebrews have a tomb, that of [[Helena of Adiabene|Helena]], a native woman, in the city of Jerusalem, which the Roman Emperor razed to the ground. There is a contrivance in the tomb whereby the door, which like the entire tomb is made of stone, does not open until the year brings back the same day and the same hour. Then the mechanism, unaided, opens the door, which, after a short interval, shuts itself again. This happens at that time, but should you at any other try to open the door you cannot do so; force will not open it, but only break it down."</ref> Probably a small amount of water pressure activated a system of weights to open the tomb. 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.