Fit for a King: King David’s Tomb?
The longest, most elaborate of the tombs, designated T1 by Weill, measures 52.5 feet long and more than 8 feet wide. The front of the tomb has been hacked away, so it is impossible to know the original appearance of the entrance. In the rear is a depression apparently for a body or for an unusually large sarcophagus or coffin. The long tunnel was later altered, presumably when the royal cemetery became crowded, and a lower-level tomb was dug directly beneath it to make room for someone who wanted to be buried near the body in the upper level. Grooves (marked in the cross-section, below, and visible in the photo, at left) were carved into the walls of the original tomb to hold arched supports for a floor, which separated the two levels. In front of the tomb, steps led down to a lower tomb chamber. An entrance to still another tomb chamber (the stone outcrop beside T1’s entrance in the photo) lies to the right.
Weill prepared the meticulous plan and section above, and Louis-Hugues Vincent of Jerusalem’s École Biblique drew the entrance (below) based on Weill’s and his own observations. The tomb has not been scientifically studied and redrawn in modern times.
