Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found?

Home > Magazines > BAR > July/August 1987

In a recent issue of BAR, archaeologists Gabriel Barkay and Amos Kloner described two magnificent burial caves from the First Temple period located just a few hundred yards north of Jerusalem’s old city (“Jerusalem Tombs From the Days of the First Temple,” BAR 12:02). Because these caves are now located on the grounds of the famous French institution of scholars known as the École Biblique et Archéologique Française, they are called the École Biblique tombs. Each of these two adjacent burial cave complexes covers approximately 10,000 square feet and contains burial chambers (six in one complex, seven in the […]

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Footnotes

“The ‘Third Wall’ in Jerusalem and the ‘Cave of the Kings’ (Josephus, The Jewish War V. 147),” Levant, Vol. 18 (1986), p. 121.

Josephus, The Jewish War (H. Thackeray, translator) Loeb Classical Library, V. 147.

In the 19th century, this magnificent (and as we now know) Hellenistic tomb was thought to be the burial place of the later kings of Judah. In 1863, a sarcophagus with an inscription was discovered in the tomb, which enabled it to be identified as the mausoleum of Queen Adiabene. Unfortunately, it is still called, to the confusion of tourists, the Tomb of the Kings.

Some have argued that Josephus is referring instead to the quarry known as Zedekiah’s cave under the north wall of the Old City. But this huge cavern is a quarry, not a burial cave.