Rare look at ancient tomb under Jerusalem
![Rare look at ancient tomb under Jerusalem](https://english.hathalyoum.net/images/breakingnews.png)
Flashlight beams pierce the darkness and reveal an
archaeological gem, an ancient tomb, in underground Jerusalem few have had the
chance to glimpse in recent years, according to AFP.
The elaborate, 2,000-year-old tomb’s stone shelves once held
sarcophagi, and its steps are hewn from rock connecting its chambers.
It serves as a remarkable example of a Roman-era tomb —
considered among the largest in the region — but it remains closed for now and
largely forgotten in a corner of east Jerusalem.
Talks are ongoing between France, which owns the site known
as the Tomb of the Kings, and Israel to reopen it, and AFP was recently given
an exclusive tour.
“We are talking about probably the most important,
fascinating and large monument in Jerusalem outside the Old City,” said Yuval
Baruch, Jerusalem regional archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The tomb has been closed since 2010 due to renovations
costing around a million euros ($1.1 million).
But its unique status, Jewish veneration of the burial site
and its location in the disputed city have added to complications in reopening
it.
Archaeological sites in east Jerusalem are often freighted
with religious significance and questions linked to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The Tomb of the Kings is no exception, though with
international involvement since France owns it.
Israel occupied mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem in the
1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the
international community.
It sees the entire city as its capital, while the
Palestinians view the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
France wants guarantees
Groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews have gathered at the tomb’s
gate to press for its reopening so that they can pray there. They describe it
as a holy burial site of ancient ancestors.
“All we ask is to enter, make a prayer and leave,” said
Natanel Snir, who was part of a group of around 12 ultra-Orthodox Jews who
briefly gathered outside the gate Thursday.
There has also been a challenge at Israel’s rabbinical court
— which rules on matters related to Jewish law and holy sites — over access to
the tomb and France’s ownership.
A concert at the site organized with a Palestinian group
around a decade ago also led to criticism.
The court case has been abandoned for now at the request of
Israel’s foreign ministry, but there are discussions about whether to resume
it, said Rachel Shakargy of the Israeli rabbinical courts.
Before reopening the site, France wants guarantees it will
not face legal challenges and is asking for commitments on how visits will be
managed.
French officials declined to comment, while Israel’s foreign
ministry said negotiations are continuing, without elaborating.
Both states are concerned it could become more of a
religious than archaeological site after its reopening.
In the meantime, an iron gate leading to ancient steps,
ritual baths and the expansive tomb further below remains locked.
Queen’s tomb?
Both the history of the site and how France came to own it
are complex.
An excavation in the 1860s, when the Ottoman Empire ruled
the region, is thought to be the first modern archaeological dig in the Holy
Land, said Jean-Baptiste Humbert, a French archaeologist who has carried out
excavations at the tomb.
Felicien de Saulcy of France took on the project in 1863 and
sought to confirm it was the tomb of biblical figures King David and Solomon,
giving rise to the site’s name.
That theory has been ruled out, but the name has endured.
Several sarcophagi were found inside and are now in the
Louvre museum in Paris, including one with an Aramaic inscription.
According to the most commonly accepted theory, it refers to
Queen Helena of Adiabene, in today’s Iraqi Kurdistan, and she may have built
the tomb for her dynasty.
She is thought to have converted to Judaism and her remains
may well have been buried there.
Whether or not that is the case, the site is also believed
to have been reused over the years.
After de Saulcy’s excavation, the tomb was purchased by the
Pereire brothers, a Jewish banking family in Paris that would later hand the
property over to France.
‘Much too big’
The site is set around 700 meters (yards) from Jerusalem’s
Old City.
Stone stairs lead down to two ritual baths and a courtyard
in front of the tomb itself, with the remains of an ancient frieze above its
entry.
The underground tomb spreads over some 250 square meters,
slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court.
For Humbert, the site’s grandeur and other factors mean it
could not have been built for Helena’s dynasty.
He theorizes it could have been built by Herod Agrippa,
grandson of Herod the Great.
“It is a tomb much too big for her,” he said.
No matter why it was built, it captured visitors’
imaginations before fading from public consciousness.
There are pictures of German Kaiser Wilhelm II visiting in
1898.
For Baruch, the site should be open — and the artifacts at
the Louvre returned.
“In my perspective, it must stay or exist as an
archaeological cultural site, and of course if you want as an individual to go
there and to pray, you can do it,” he said.