Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem): Difference between revisions

{{Short description|1st -century burial site in IsraelEast Jerusalem}}

The '''Tombs of the Kings''' ({{Lang-he|קברי המלכים}} ''Keveri HaMlakhim''; {{Lang-ar|قبور السلاطين}}; {{Lang-fr|Tombeau des Rois}}) are a [[Catacombs|rock-cut funerary complex]] in [[East Jerusalem]] believed to be the burial site of [[Queen Helene of Adiabene]] (died c. 50–56 CE), hence: '''Helena's Monuments'''.<ref>The term applied for this site in [[Josephus]], ''[[The Jewish War]]'' (5.4.2.). Cf. ''ibid''. ''[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquities]]'' (20.4.3.).</ref> The tombs are located {{convert|820 meters (half a mile)|m|abbr=on}} north of Jerusalem's [[Old City (Jerusalem)|Old City]] walls in the [[Sheikh Jarrah]] neighborhood (Hebrew: {{Script/Hebrew|שכונת שייח ג'ראח}}; Arabic: {{Lang|ar|حي الشيخ جرّاح}})

The grandeur of the site led to the 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 associated with Queen Helena of [[Adiabene]].<ref name=Rahmani3>"Ancient Jerusalem's Funerary Customs and Tombs: Part Three, L. Y. Rahmani, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Winter, 1982), pp. 43–53</ref> According to this theory, Queen Helena chose the site to bury her son Isates and others of her dynasty. More recent research by noted French scholar and Dominican monkfriar Jean-Baptiste Humbert has concluded that the tomb was likely designed for [[Herod Agrippa I]], the grandson of [[Herod the Great]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dospěl |first1=Marek |title=New insights into the Tomb of the Kings |url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/the-tomb-of-the-kings-in-jerusalem/?mqsc=E4140669&dk=ZE2410ZF0 |website=BAR Jan 2022 |publisher=Biblical Archeology |access-date=5 January 2022}}</ref>

The site is located east of the intersection of [[Nablus Road]] and Saladin Street. The gate of the property is marked "''Tombeau des Rois''", French for "Tomb of the Kings."

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/> 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.

In 1864, the French-Jewish banker [[Isaac Péreire]] attempted to purchase the site but without success. In the 1870s, a French-Jewish woman, Amalya Bertrand, paid 30,000 francs for it. It was registered as French property under the trusteeship of the French consul. Bertrand declared: "I am of the firm opinion that this property, the field and the burial cave of the kings, will become the land in perpetuity of the Jewish community, to be preserved from desecration and abomination, and will never again be damaged by foreigners.<ref name=Ynet/> She had a wall and guard post built around the site. In 1886, Bertrand's heirs donated it to the French government<ref name=Ynet/> "to preserve it for science and the worship of the faithful [[Jewish people|children of Israel]]".<ref>[https://oeuvre-orient.fr/actualites/laction-de-la-france-en-faveur-du-patrimoine-chretien-en-terre-sainte/ Terre Sainte : l'action de la France en faveur du patrimoine chrétien], M. Yves Teyssier d'Orfeuil for a round table discussion on the "Cultural heritage of Oriental Christians" at the [[Arab World Institute]], Paris, February 2014. Posted by l'Œuvre d'Orient, accessed 15 May 2020.</ref>. It's a part of the ''[[:fr:Domaine national français en Terre sainte|Domaine national français]]''.

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.

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File:Sarcophagus Louvre AO5029 n01.jpg|thumb|The Sarcophagus in the Louvre

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[[Category:Tombs in Israelthe State of Palestine]]