Zedekiah’s Cave (Jerusalem)

It was an outstanding experience for me to discover a huge cave lying under the OldCity in Jerusalem, known as Zedekiah’s Cave, or King Solomon’s Quarries. The entrance into the cave is near the Shechem Gate of the OldCity, and the cave itself is located under the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, stretching almost all the way to the TempleMount. The cave is artificial, made by human hands, and it served as a quarry for mining the stone used for the construction of the OldCity. Zedekiah’s Cave is yet another mysterious place

It was here where the huge stones were quarried for the construction of the Temple Mount Complex during the times of king Herod. It could have also been used much earlier, back when the First Temple was built by King Solomon.

At any rate, this is how the British scientists of the 19th century from the Palestinian Exploration Fund called the cave — King Solomon’s Quarries.

This cave was discovered absolutely accidentally. One nice winter evening of 1856, Englishman James Barclay with his son was walking a dog outside the city walls. Suddenly, the dog disappeared, as if it had been swallowed up by the earth. Yes, indeed it went down. Showering rains in the previous days washed up a mound near the city’s wall, and Barclay’s dog fell into an opened pit. When James Barclay went into the pit for his dog, he saw that further down there was a passage into a huge dark cavern.

The next day, this time without a dog and his son, but with two of his friends, Barclay came here again. The three spies clothed in Arab arrays made their way unnoticed to the Muslim cemetery right opposite the Shechem Gate. There they waited until it became dark and the gates of the city were closed. Interestingly enough, in the 19th century the gates of Jerusalem were locked up fast every night! Then the Englishmen crawled into the hole, found by the dog the day before. And they crawled on the sticky dirty clay, until they found themselves in a huge hall.

The height of the cave’s space reaches 15 metres — the size of a four-storey building. The length of the cave is more than 300 metres, and it continues under the Musim quarter of the Old City almost to the Temple Mount.

It is not exactly known when the entrance to the cave was sealed up. Maybe it was done by Suleiman the Magnificent, who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, or maybe earlier, under the Mamluks, or even under the Crusaders. One thing is for certain, the entrance was sealed out of fear that some enemies may enter the city through the cave.

During the Middle Ages people believed that there was a passage both into Jerusalem and even into Jericho from the underground caves. Related to this belief, there is a legend about the last king of Judah – Zedekiah, who ran from the besieged city through this cave and was captured by Babylonian soldiers as far as in the valley of Jericho. There is a spring in the cave, called Zedekiah’s Tears. Drops of water, seeping through the rock, trickle down like the tears of the unfortunate king.

This is how these events are described in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 52, verses 4 through 11. “And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about) and they went by the way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.”

The largest chamber in the cave is called the Freemasons’ Hall, for it is here, where for the last one hundred and fifty years, starting from the discovery of the cave by James Barclay, secret ceremonies of the masonic lodges are being held every year. The Freemasons’ Order believe that they continue the cause of the Order of Knights Templars (keepers of the Temple), and they consider King Solomon to be the first and chief Mason (Grand Master), as the one who build the First Temple. King Solomon is the Order’s patron, and King Solomon’s quarries is an ideal in its spiritual significance place for the members of the Freemasons’ Order to meet in!

In the 19th century, the Head of the Freemasons’ Order was one of the most prominent archaeologists and explorers of Israel, Charles Warren. Warren was the first to make a detailed plan of the caverns of the Temple Mount. Warren found underground tunnels near the Western Wall with blocked gates and a large hall. In the city of David, Warren found a deep well, joined to the tunnel of Zedekiah. Exploration of the Zedekiah’s cave actively continued both at the end of the 19th century, and later — in the 20th century.

Many coins and potsherds dating back to the Herodian period were found. Very few archaeological relics were found from the time of the First Temple — almost none. That is why the modern historians believe that the cave was definitely used for quarrying by Herod, but hardly was it used by King Solomon.

And the most peculiar discovery in the cave was made in 1873 by a Frenchman Clermont-Ganneau. On one of the cave’s walls he found an engraving of a winged cherub. The image was identified by him as a mystical guard of the holy site from the epoch of the Judean kings. At present, the carving is displayed at the British Museum in London.

In the vicinities of Jerusalem, there are several kinds of limestone fitted for construction. The most valuable kind of the best quality is Melekh limestone, which means Royal in Arabic. This limestone is easy to carve, and it is relatively easy to quarry it from the general rock. But when exposed to sunshine, the stones become stronger and harder, and their white colour more and more looks like the Italian marble.

Undoubtedly, it seems like this stone was created by nature itself for the greatest and most unique architectural projects. It is known that the last time the stone from the quarries was used for the construction of the clock tower of Jaffa Gates in the beginning of the 20th century.

In this article the materials were used from the web-source (in Russian): http://judaea.ru