Zedekiah's Cave - The Secret Cave of Jerusalem

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 Some of the most fascinating archeological discoveries in the Land of Israel were the result of fortuitous circumstances. In 1854, Dr. James Turner Barclay (1807-1874), a distinguished American Biblical scholar working in Jerusalem was taking a walk outside the Old City walls with his son and his dog.

Music at the Tzidkiyau cave during Hamshushalaim Festival

The three of them were enjoying a sunny winter day, when suddenly the dog vanished. Dr. Barclay called to the animal, whistling in a manner it would recognize. There was no response; the dog was nowhere to be found. His son continued searching for his beloved pet at the foot of the rocky cliffs, on which the Old City wall is built. Suddenly, in the midst of the drainage at the foot of the wall, the boy came upon a deep cistern created by the flow of water from recent rainfall. Peering inside, he was surprised to hear the sound of barking emanating from the depths of the earth.

DISCOVERING JERUSALEM'S LARGEST CAVE

Gazing into the sewage, Dr. Barclay spied a huge dark cavern. The dog was lifted out and all three returned home.

Thus, Dr. Barclay's adventurous dog is credited with rediscovering one of Jerusalem's most fascinating and ancient sites: the largest artificial cave ever to be uncovered in Israel.

The next day, dressed as Arabs and carrying implements they had prepared beforehand, Dr. Barclay and two companions headed for the Arab cemetery overlooking the mouth of the cave, across from the Damascus Gate. There, they waited until the city gates were bolted shut at nightfall. Once the Damascus gate was firmly closed, they made their way to the opening they had discovered the previous day.

They slipped inside and, after slogging through the mud and alluvial soil created by the rain water, they found themselves in an enormous cavern. They began to survey the length and breadth of the cave, even taking initial measurements. Having spent the entire night there inspecting its winding passageways, the three explorers returned home the following morning.

Dr. Barclay announced his amazing discovery to the scientific world and to jerusalem scholars, thereby transforming Zedekiah's Cave into a veritable lodestone for hikers and researchers.
Tzidkitahu Cave

WHAT KIND OF CAVE IS IT?

Even though more than 150 years have elapsed since its discovery, and despite the numerous studies conducted there, much of the cave's history still remains shrouded in mystery. On one point, however, there is unanimity: the artificial man-made cave provided Jerusalem's builders an excellent quarry for the stones used in the construction of the city's major public edifices. As a matter of fact, it was non-stop quarrying over the years that produced the cave's present gigantic proportions.

Appearance and Dimensions

The mouth of the cave is situated on a rocky cliff that serves at the foundation for the Old City wall. Upon entering, we step on chips of cut stone, while many landfills make it impossible to sense the cave's full height.

We go down in a southerly direction – beneath the Old City itself – along a rebuilt path which runs past the landslides and leads to the quarry site. On the way, we can distinguish what appear to be openings to the left and right of the walkway. Actually, they are not openings at all, but rather rock pillars, left by the quarries to shore up the ceiling, thereby easing the strain to prevent cracks and eventual collapse.

The cave's maximum length is about 230 meters – beneath the Moslem Quarter. Its maximum width exceeds 100 meters. Its entire net area comprises 9,000 square meters. Its average height is that of a 4 – story building – about 15 meters. Its full height can be seen at the far southern sections of the cave. The rock ceiling above the cave – between the interior height of the cave up to the rock face upon which the foundations of the Old City structures are built – is about 10 meters thick.

Anyone strolling through the alleyways of the Old City, between the Sisters of Zion Convent and the Herod's Gate, cannot avoid, when walking along certain streets, treading on sections of this huge cave.

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUARRY CAVE OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM

Evident signs of stone quarrying can be discerned along the cave's sides and ceiling. Three factors caused the first quarries to turn it into a quarry cave. Firstly, the cave provided protection from the sun's scorching rays in summer and from rainstorms in winter, thus enabling them to work continuously under good conditions during most of the daylight hours throughout the year.

Another equally important factor was the nature of the stones quarried. Jerusalem's Arab builders were acquainted with several types of building stone. The best was known as "Melekeh" (meaning "royal") and, as befitting its name, it was used in the construction of royal edifices. It is a thick, though soft, limestone, easily quarried. The great advantage of this stone lies in being able to quarry large blocks of it, thus obtaining stones of the desired size.

When first quarried, Melekeh stone looks glistening white. Its exposure to the sun turns it grayish in color, similar to Italian marble, and creates an undue hardness in the stone.
Thus, a structure made of Melekeh stone becomes harder with the passage of time. Many Jerusalem monuments have been constructed using this limestone. The most outstanding site built of this stone, transported from distant quarries, is the area of the Temple Mount.
The importance of Zedekiah's Cave lies in the fact that the major quarry layers consist of Melekeh stone.

The third reason for the Zedekiah Cave quarry is its proximity to the construction sites in the city, yielding significant savings in the cost of transporting the building materials.

All of these factors made Zedekiah's Cave the most important of Jerusalem's ancient quarries.

WHEN WAS THE CAVE USED? REALITY AND FANTASY

King Solomon's Quarries

Ever since scholars discovered this to be an artificial cave, whose purpose and creation were related to quarry works, the nagging question has been: Who were the first miners to extract building stones from this quarry? Were they King Solomon's builders? The Bible recounts:
The Entrnce to the Freemason's Hall

"Solomon also had 70,000 porters and 80,000 quarriers in the hills, apart from Solomon's 3,300 officials who were in charge of the work and supervised the gangs doing the work. The king ordered huge blocks of choice stone to be quarried, so that the foundations of the house might be laid with hewn stones."  (I Kings 5:29-31).

These verses have intrigued scholars, who have suggested that the proximity of the Temple Mount, namely Mount Moriah, and the Ophel (the area connecting the Temple Mount and David's City) to the site of Zedekiah's Cave is what prompted King Solomon to utilize the easily available quarry strata to produce the stones necessary for his building projects.

These scholars publicized the cave under the name by which it is known today – King Solomon's Quarries. At the time, a British Survey Foundation mission visited Jerusalem; it was headed by one of its senior researchers, Sir Charles Warren, a member of the Order of Freemasons, which considered King Solomon, the greatest builder of the Biblical period, to be its person. Warren adopted the idea that the Freemasons hold their Jerusalem meetings in the long-discovered Zedekiah's Cave.

The Flight of the Last King – Zedekiah's Cave

The Jews of pre-state Jerusalem held to a different claim regarding the cave – one that has accorded it the Hebrew name it bears today: Zedekiah's Cave. This version relates to the flight of the last of the Judean king from jerusalem, as it lay besieged by the Chaldeans, and his capture at their hands in the plains of Jericho. The Prophet Jeremiah recounts:

"Then [the wall of] the city was breached. All the soldiers fled; they left the city by night through the gate between the double walls, which is near the king's garden – the Chaldeans were all around the city -  and they set out for the Arabah. But the Chakdean troops pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, as his entire force left him and scattered."   (Jeremiah, 52:7-8)

Rashi added another aspect of this tale in his commentary to these verses:

"And a cave extends from the house of Zedekiah to the plains of Jericho, and he fled through the cave, and the Blessed One Be He summoned a hart, which went on the roof of the cave outside the city. The Chaldeans pursued the hart and when it reached the cave opening in the plains of Jericho, Zedekiah came out, and they saw him and captured him."

Zedekiah's Cave is, therefore, the cave's popular name and no amount of persuasion by scholars regarding the truth behind the legends has dissuaded people from using that name. Thus, many other folk tales concerning the cave abound. For example, water seeping through the cave's rock ceiling and draining into a small pool at its southern extremity has earned the sobriquet: Zedekiah's Tears, because of the tears shed by that monarch upon seeing his children executed.
The Water Tunnel in the Zedekiah's Cave

HOW LONG WAS THE CAVE IN USE – FROM BEGINNING TO END?

The possibility that this is an extremely ancient cave, dating from the First Temple period, still requires more substantial evidence than presently available. More likely, the cave began to be utilized as a large quarry cave sometime during the Second Temple period, possibly in connection with the huge construction works undertaken by King Herod in Jerusalem.

Following Herod's tremendous construction period, the builders of Jerusalem continued to avail themselves of the quarry, producing quality stones for their construction sites.
The cave ceased being utilized when it was blocked by construction and its location became unknown. At what point this occurred is also unclear. Scholars surmise that the cave was blockaded during the period Suleiman the Magnificent built Jerusalem's city walls (1535-1538) because the builders feared that the enemy would be able to gain entrance to the cave and dig tunnels into the heart of the city. However, this date, too, is uncertain.

The last known documented use of the cave as a stone quarry is connected with the construction of the clock tower above Jaffa Gate. This took place in the early 20th century when the Turks built several clock towers throughout Israel. As previously mentioned, one such tower was built over the main entrance to the city, namely Jaffa Gate, in 1908.

This tower was removed by the British Mandate authorities during the 1920's. The stones of the clock tower were quarried in Zedekiah's Cave, this being, in fact, the last time we learn of the cave's use as a quarry, after Barclay rediscovered it in the 19th century.

PREPARING THE CAVE FOR TOURISM

Apparently, during the construction of Jerusalem and the renovation of its city walls by Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, during 1535-1538, Zedekiah's Cave was blockaded with stones, so that it would not be a weak link in the city's fortifications. It remained sealed until its rediscovery in the winter of 1854.

The Entrance to the Tzidkiyahu Cave

Thereafter, the cave became a popular tourist site. Entering the vast, dark and mysterious cave took courage and resourcefulness. It presented a challenge to Jerusalem's daredevils. Not many years after its discovery, the authorities forbade people to enter the cave, to prevent its being used as a hideout by enemies of the Ottoman Empire.

The cave was reopened to the public only during the British Mandate (1920-1948). During World War II, a concrete wall was erected at the front, inside which a colonnaded passageway was installed, so that it could serve as a shelter should the Germans and Italians bombard Jerusalem. Under Jordanian rule, the cave was again closed to the public.

After the Six Day War (1967), the Jerusalem Municipality's Tourism Department decided to prepare the cave for visits by the public: electric lighting was installed and walkways within the cave were improved somewhat. However, the humidity inside the cave made it impossible to operate electric lines, and the paths were unfit for large groups of tourists.

In 1985, the East Jerusalem Development Company with the help of the Jerusalem Foundation assumed responsibility for the cave's preparation and maintenance as a tourist site. A tour of the cave was well planned out and paths were constructed over the mounds of sewage and supported by wooden pediments.

Non-glare indirect lighting and moisture-resistant cables were installed. These innovations have made it easy and comfortable for tourists to enjoy the cave's beauty and distinctivness.

For more information: East Jerusalem Development Ltd. – tourism sites
Tel:  02-6277550
Fax: 02-6277962
Email: davidson@pami.co.il