Tale of Two Caves
If you go out of the Damascus Gate from the Old City of Jerusalem and turn right you come to the entrance to Solomon's Quarries. When we first visited Jerusalem in 1958 the entrance was solidly blocked with stone and cement, allegedly for fear lest the Jews, lurking on the other side of the high wall which separated the Damascus Gate from no-man's land, sneak in and blow up the Old City or the Haram ash-Sharif, depending on who was telling you the story.
After 1967, when the Jews took over the Old City, the entrance remained solidly blocked, allegedly for fear lest the Arabs, now all over the place, sneak in and blow up the Old City or the Jewish Quarter or the Western Wall, again depending on who was telling you the story.
Around about 1975 the entrance was partially unblocked and an iron door inserted, allegedly so that tourists could explore the wonders of Solomon's Quarries. In fact the door was never open, though rumour had it that visiting Masonic Lodges could, after greasing the right palms, obtain access in order to conduct mysterious and dreadful ceremonies at the dead of night.
On one of my visits to Jerusalem in the 1980s I happened to pass the entrance and find it open. Greatly astonished and feeling slightly daring, I approached and peered in. An Arab appeared like a genii out of a bottle and demanded a certain number of shekels as the price of admission and, feeling even more astonished, I was able to go in and explore, though as I had no torch and the lighting was sketchy, to say the best, I didn't accomplish much.
Subsequently we have found the Quarries open on several occasions and our tour groups have actually been inside once or twice, though I have only been in once more. On that occasion the lighting was much improved - and I had brought a torch that proved superfluous - and I found the place extremely interesting.
According to legend, the Quarries have an entrance (or exit, if you prefer) into the Old City and were used by King Zedekiah to slip out of the city and head for Jericho in an abortive attempt to evade the besieging Babylonians. Another legend claims that in fact there is a tunnel which actually links the Quarries with Jericho, though I find that hard to believe.
The Quarries slope downwards from the entrance and widen out to form a vast cavern some 600' long and 300' across at its widest. Other excavations lead off this main cavern, but most of these are out of bounds to visitors and contain various dark corners in which, conceivably, the entrance to the 13-mile long tunnel down to Jericho might be hidden.
In several places water drips down from the roof of the cave and the drops are known as "Zedekiah's Tears". In one place the water dribbles down the side of the cave, leaving multicoloured stains on the wall (which probably bespeak ill-drained sewage rather than rich mineral content) and in one place I spotted what looked distinctly like a betyl similar to the ones carved on the wall of the Siq at Petra, a possible indication that Nabatean workmen were involved in the excavations.
I mention all this because the news has just been announced (June 2009) of the discovery of a very similar underground quarry down near Jericho. Adam Zertal, of the Haifa University, and his team have been surveying and mapping the area around Qumran and Jericho since 1978 and some three months ago they happened upon a hole in the ground.
Feeling that no stone should be left unturned and no interesting holes left unentered, the team was about to venture in when two chance Beduin passersby approached and warned them not to enter as the cave was frequented by wolves and hyenas. Finding that that kindly warning did not deter the Jews the Beduin added that evil spirits were also known to haunt the cave, then shrugged their shoulders and left them to it. (I don't suppose they were unduly anxious over the prospect of an evil djinn carrying off a bunch of Jews!)
Sure enough, when they finally entered the hole, the students found the ground littered with animal bones, evidence for the wolves and hyenas. Djinn, however, declined to put in an appearance.
The cave, which has been hailed as "the largest in Israel" - which is pure nonsense as the Sorek Caves are larger than the reported dimensions of this one - turned out to be a quarry which, based on the pot sherds that have been found in it, was first worked in Roman times and continued to be used for some 500 years.
In some places huge baulks of stone have been left unquarried to support the roof and on these the team has discovered niches cut to hold oil lamps, a legionary symbol and thirteen crosses. On this basis they are hailing the site as a Christian holy place and have come up with some far-fetched theory that it may be Biblical Gilgal. It is far more likely that the crosses were cut by Christian workmen or possibly even by Christian prisoners during one of the many persecutions that were unleashed against the church, as early Christian writers refer to martyrs being condemned to the quarries where they were worked to death.
There is talk of turning the site into a tourist attraction, which is inevitable, I suppose. You only have to find a piece of stone lying on the ground and some eager entrepeneur in Israel will attempt to turn it into a tourist attraction. What intrigues me, however, is the discovery of two such similar quarries, one in Jerusalem and the other near Jericho. Although I don't for a moment suppose that they are linked by a tunnel, I wonder if the newly discovered quarry is the trigger for the legend of that tunnel?
King Zedekiah An alternative name for the Quarries is, in fact, "Zedekiah's Cave". The name "Solomon's Quarries" comes from a legend that the stone to build the temple was taken from these underground workings (which is why the Masons are interested in the place) and that is why the Bible states that no sound of tools was heard on the building site. Other explanations for the Biblical statement are possible and probably more likely. There is no evidence that the Quarries are older than the Roman period. Return
© Kendall K. Down 2009
