The Tombs of the Kings (Hebrew: קברי המלכים Kivere HaMelakhim; Arabic: قبور السلاطين; French: Tombeau des Rois) are a rock-cut funerary complex in East Jerusalem believed to be the burial site of Queen Helene of Adiabene (died c. 50–56 CE), hence: Helena's Monuments. The tombs are located 820 m (2,690 ft) north of Jerusalem's Old City walls in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (שכונת שייח ג'ראח; Arabic: حي الشيخ جرّاح) The grandeur of the site led to the belief that the tombs had once been the burial place of the kings of Judah, hence the name Tombs of the Kings; but the tombs are now associated with Queen Helena of Adiabene. According to this theory, Queen Helena chose the site to bury her son Isates and others of her dynasty. More recent research by noted French scholar and Dominican friar Jean-Baptiste Humbert has concluded that the tomb was likely designed for Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great. The site is located east of the intersection of Nablus Road and Saladin Street. The gate of the property is marked "Tombeau des Rois", French for "Tomb of the Kings."
Public access
In 2009 the site was closed to the public to facilitate a restoration project. On 15 May 2019, Hekdesh, a Jewish organisation (Association Hekdesh du Tombeau des rois), hired Gilles-William Goldnadel, a French lawyer, and took the French government to court. Goldnadel tried to prove that the site, after being purchased in 1878 by a French-Jewish woman, Berthe Amélie Bertrand, or by the brothers Péreire, French-Jewish bankers, was left to the French state on condition that the Jews would preserve the right to visit the site (see below at History). Goldnadel also hopes to reclaim the sarcophagus of queen Helena of Adiabene, presently housed at the Louvre. On June 27, 2019, the French consulate in Jerusalem reopened the site to visitors purchasing tickets in advance. The site was closed after protests at the site by ultra-Orthodox Jews who wanted to pray there, because they said it is the burial place of important historical individuals, among them the father-in-law of Rabbi Akiva. As of May 2024, the site was under renovation.
General layout From street level a hewn staircase, measuring 9 metres (30 ft) in width and having a length of 30 metres (98 ft), descends into a carved courtyard. Alongside the staircase there is built a drainage system and cisterns. The main courtyard sinks down to a depth of 8.5 metres (28 ft) within the bedrock and has a total measurement of approximately 27 metres (89 ft) x 26 metres (85 ft). The portal is on its western façade and is ascended by a flight of three steps. In front of the burial cave formerly stood two pillars and two pilasters carved in the rock face and which are now scarcely visible. Above the portal is a Doric frieze, made of metopes and triglyphs, with a cluster of grapes in the center and wreaths of acanthus leaves next to it. A leaf plexus extends along the architrave. The inner tomb is made-up of a complex labyrinth consisting of eight chambers, with a total of 48 burial niches, some of which formerly contained decorated sarcophagi. The chambers of the royal tomb are made with both kokhim (burial niches) in the old Jewish style, and arcosolia in the Roman fashion.
History
Queen Helena of Adiabene
The tomb is mentioned by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in the first century CE. He writes about Helena, queen of Adiabene, a small kingdom from Mesopotamia (today part of northern Iraq) who came to Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple Period. Her family converted to Judaism and built a palace in the area today known as the City of David. Helena's son Monobaz II had her remains and those of his brother buried "three stadia from Jerusalem." Medieval Europeans mistakenly identified the tomb as belonging to the kings of Judah.
Discovery and exploration
In 1847, the Turkish governor ordered a search for treasures in the tomb but none were found. In 1863, the French archaeologist Félicien de Saulcy was given permission to excavate the tomb. The German architect Conrad Schick drew up a map of the site. De Saulcy found sarcophagi, one of which was bearing the Hebrew inscription "Queen Tzaddah". He believed this was the sarcophagus of the wife of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. After human bones were found, the Jewish community appealed to Sir Moses Montefiore to persuade the Ottomans to halt the excavations. De Saulcy smuggled out some of his findings, which are now at the Louvre in Paris.
Purchase and property In 1864, the French-Jewish banker Isaac Péreire attempted to purchase the site but without success. In 1874, a French-Jewish woman, Berthe Amalie Bertrand, announced her purchase of the plot of ground. After she had paid 30,000 francs for the property, it was then registered as French property under the trusteeship of the French consul. Bertrand declared: "I am of the firm opinion that this property, the field and the burial cave of the kings, will become the land in perpetuity of the Jewish community, to be preserved from desecration and abomination, and will never again be damaged by foreigners. She had a wall and guard post built around the site. In 1886, Bertrand's heirs donated it to the French government "to preserve it for science and the worship of the faithful children of Israel". It's a part of the French national domain in the Holy Land.
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