Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem)

The Tombs of the Kings (Hebrew: קברי המלכים Keveri HaMlakhim; Arabic: قبور السلاطين; French: Tombeau des Rois) are a group of old tombs carved from rock in East Jerusalem. Some people think these tombs may have been where Queen Helene of Adiabene was buried. Because they look so grand and beautiful, some believed they might have been for the kings of Judah, but now they are mostly thought to belong to Queen Helene.

Stories say Queen Helene chose this place to bury her son Isates and other family members. Some newer ideas from a French expert named Jean-Baptiste Humbert suggest the tombs may have been made for Herod Agrippa I, who was the grandson of the famous Herod the Great.

You can find the Tombs of the Kings east of where Nablus Road and Saladin Street meet. The entrance has a sign that reads "Tombeau des Rois", meaning "Tomb of the Kings" in French.

Public access

In 2009, the site was closed so workers could fix it up.

In May 2019, a group hired a lawyer. The site reopened in June 2019, but had to close again because some people were upset. As of May 2024, the site is still being worked on.

General layout

From the street, a wide staircase leads down into a large carved courtyard. The courtyard is deep and has a special entrance with three steps. Above the entrance, there are beautiful carvings, including a design of grapes and leaves.

Inside the tomb, there is a maze of eight rooms with many places to lay people to rest. These places include both Jewish-style niches and Roman-style arched spaces.

History

The tombs were written about by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus a long time ago. He told the story of Helena, queen of Adiabene, a small kingdom from Mesopotamia. Helena and her family came to Jerusalem and became Jewish. They even built a palace in what we now call the City of David. Helena’s son Monobaz II had her and his brother buried not far from Jerusalem. Later, people thought these tombs belonged to the kings of Judah.

In 1847, a leader looked for treasures but found nothing. In 1863, a French archaeologist named Félicien de Saulcy was allowed to dig there. A German architect named Conrad Schick made a map of the place. De Saulcy found stone boxes for holding bodies. After bones were found, a leader named Sir Moses Montefiore asked to stop the digging. De Saulcy took some items away.

In 1864, a French-Jewish banker named Isaac Péreire tried to buy the site but couldn’t. In 1874, a French-Jewish woman named Berthe Amalie Bertrand bought the land. She built a wall and a guard post around it. In 1886, her family gave the site to the French government. It became part of the French national domain in the Holy Land.

Traditions

The Tomb of the Kings was once called the second most beautiful tomb in the world by a Greek traveler. People thought it had a special stone door that would only open at a certain time of the year.

A small stone house was later built on top of the tomb by a family in Jerusalem.

Archaeological findings

From the house, a wide staircase with 23 steps leads to a courtyard. Rainwater collects in baths carved into the steps and flows to water wells. At the bottom of the stairs, there are ancient ritual baths and a stone wall with a gate to another courtyard carved from rock.

The tombs are entered through a rock-cut arch on the western side. This arch was once topped with three pyramids and decorated with grapes, leaves, and fruit, showing Greek style. Inside, the tombs have two levels around a central chamber. There are four rooms upstairs and three downstairs. The central chamber is reached through an antechamber that could be sealed with a large stone.

The tombs once held stone boxes for bodies, called sarcophagi. These were taken to France by a French team led by Louis Felicien de Saulcy and are now shown at the Louvre Museum in Paris. One sarcophagus has inscriptions that scholars believe belong to Queen Helena of Adiabene. The tomb's design matches the style of the Seleucid period, supporting this idea.

Main article: Helena of Adiabene

• Sarcophagus of Helena of Adiabene

• Sarcophagus from the Tombs of the Kings

• The Sarcophagus in the Louvre