DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4641#0045
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This remarkable sepulchre, strongly resembling those of the Egyptian Thebes, is the finest relic of the kind
' the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Its present name has been long given by the Europeans, from a
nception of its being the burial-place of some of the Jewish monarchs. From the elegance of
"t f t and the general beauty of its sculpture, it has been compared with the sepulchres of Petra, and
h niectured to have been the work of Herod, whose descent was Idumaean. But the weight of
'A 'nclines to its being the tomb of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, who had become a convert to
Judaism.1
Th ' uulchre lies to the north of the Damascus Gate, and at a short distance from it, on the slope to
h V 11 of Jehoshaphat. The portal was originally twenty-seven feet long, but it is now much broken
The sides of this portal were ornamented with columns or pilasters; and there were two intermediate
id I* 11^ y •
1 is now broken down, which divided the front into nearly three equal parts. The rock above is
richly sculptured in the later Roman style. The sepulchre consists of a large square pit sunk in the solid
k In the western Avail of this sunken court is a hall also excavated in the rock, thirty-nine feet long
by seventeen wide, and fifteen high. To this belongs the portal just mentioned. Within this hall is the
ntrance to an ante-chamber, and within this again are three large and two smaller chambers containing
the fragments of marble sarcophagi.2
1 Josephus, B. J. v. 4. 2. e Robinson, vol. i. p. 528.
MIEASf©H T
T
s @w Tmm so
This remarkable sepulchre, strongly resembling those of the Egyptian Thebes, is the finest relic of the kind
' the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Its present name has been long given by the Europeans, from a
nception of its being the burial-place of some of the Jewish monarchs. From the elegance of
"t f t and the general beauty of its sculpture, it has been compared with the sepulchres of Petra, and
h niectured to have been the work of Herod, whose descent was Idumaean. But the weight of
'A 'nclines to its being the tomb of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, who had become a convert to
Judaism.1
Th ' uulchre lies to the north of the Damascus Gate, and at a short distance from it, on the slope to
h V 11 of Jehoshaphat. The portal was originally twenty-seven feet long, but it is now much broken
The sides of this portal were ornamented with columns or pilasters; and there were two intermediate
id I* 11^ y •
1 is now broken down, which divided the front into nearly three equal parts. The rock above is
richly sculptured in the later Roman style. The sepulchre consists of a large square pit sunk in the solid
k In the western Avail of this sunken court is a hall also excavated in the rock, thirty-nine feet long
by seventeen wide, and fifteen high. To this belongs the portal just mentioned. Within this hall is the
ntrance to an ante-chamber, and within this again are three large and two smaller chambers containing
the fragments of marble sarcophagi.2
1 Josephus, B. J. v. 4. 2. e Robinson, vol. i. p. 528.