Zedekiah's Cave ~ Solomon's Quarry

 

Location

 

1. The entrance to Zedekiah's Cave is just beneath the Old City wall, between the Damascus and Herod Gates.

 

2. It's on the north side of Old City Jerusalem, just outside its walls.

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3. Only the cave's mouth is natural. The interior was carved over several thousand years.

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4. Zedekiah’s Cave is a 5-acre (2 hectares) underground limestone quarry that stretches under five city blocks of the Muslim Quarter of Old City Jerusalem.

 

5. It was carved over a period of several thousand years and is a remnant of the largest quarry in Jerusalem. 

 

Historical Background

 

1. Solomon very likely used this quarry to construct the temple and temple mount platform he built.

I Kings 5:15–17: Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, 16 besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. 17 Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. 

 

These verses have intrigued scholars who have suggested that the proximity of the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah), to the site of “Zedekiah’s Cave” is what prompted King Solomon to utilize the quarry to produce the stones necessary for his building projects.

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2. Herod the Great likely used the main quarry at Zedekiah's Cave for building blocks in renovating the temple and its retaining walls, today known as the Western or Wailing Wall.

 

3. Stones from the quarry may also have been used for Herod Agrippa I's building projects. 

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4. The cave was also said to be the hiding place of King Zedekiah when the Babylonians came to siege Jerusalem. 

The Biblical commentator Rashi wrote that Zedekiah hid here to escape the soldiers of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar during the siege of Jerusalem. According to Rashi, "There was a cave from the palace of Zedekiah to the plain of Jericho, and he fled through the cave." Thus, the legend and name of "Zedekiah's Cave" were born.

 

4. Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566), the Ottoman sultan who built the present walls around the Old City, also apparently mined the quarry. Because of security concerns, he ultimately sealed it up around 1540.

 

5. In 1854, the American missionary James Turner Barclay followed rumors of a cavern near the Damascus Gate and, apparently with the help of his dog, discovered the entrance. Barclay and his two sons returned secretly at night and explored the cave.

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6. In the mid-1880s, the cave was occupied by a German religious sect that the German Consul eventually evacuated in Jerusalem after many of the group fell ill from living in damp, unsanitary conditions.

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7. In 1873, French archeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau uncovered a crude carving of a winged creature in a small niche in the cave. The carving had two long, narrow wings that opened like a pair of scissors, a curled tail, and a bearded human head under a conical headdress. A plaque now marks the site.

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8. Around 1900, the Jews of Jerusalem changed the name from Solomon's Quarry to Zedekiah's Cave.

They believed that when Zedekiah, the last Judean king from Jerusalem, fled from the Babylonians as they besieged the city, he passed through this cave on his way to the plains of Jericho, where he was captured.

 

9. Some minor quarrying occurred in 1907 when the stone was obtained for use in the Ottoman clock tower over the Jaffa Gate. Otherwise, the site was not frequented again until the 1920s, when it became a tourist attraction.

 

10. In the late 20th century, the East Jerusalem Development Corporation restored the cave. In the mid-1980s, the Jerusalem Foundation built paths and installed lights throughout the cavern, facilitating tourist access.

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11. In 1968, an East Jerusalem resident contacted the Israeli Ministry of Finance with a claim that his grandfather had buried three cases of gold in Zedekiah's Cave during the Ottoman period. He claimed he could show officials where the treasure was buried in return for 25% of the gold. The Ministry agreed, but according to The Jerusalem Post, no gold was found after digging a deep hole.

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12. The cave reopened to the public in 2023 after three years of renovation and the installation of an audiovisual show.

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Places of Interest

 

1. Damascus Gate

 

2. Herod Gate

 

3. Zedekiah's Cave

 

4. Old City Jerusalem Walls

 

5. Temple Mount

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6. Muslim Quarter

 

7. Christian Quarter

 

8. Jewish Quarter

 

9. Armenian Quarter ​

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10. New Gate

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11. Jaffa Gate

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12. Western Wall

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13. Temple Mount - Dome of the Rock

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14. Church of the Holy Sepulchre

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15. Old City Walls

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Zedekiah's Cave ~ Solomon's Quarry in the Bible

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1. Solomon very likely used this quarry to construct the temple and temple mount platform he built - 950 BC.

I Kings 5:15–17: Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, 16 besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. 17 Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. 

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2. The destruction of Jerusalem and the tragic end of King Zedekiah's reign - 586 BC. 

King Zedekiah reigned briefly over Judah from 597 to 586 BC. His reign ended in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of most of the Jews to Babylon.

 

2 Kings 24:17-20:  Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. 18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 19 He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

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2 Kings 25:1-7: Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 2 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 4 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king went by way of the plain. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 6 So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. 7 Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

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Faith Lesson

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1. God sent Israel and Judah prophet after prophet over a period of around 400 years to warn them against rejecting Him. God was more than patient with them. What about us? Do we take God's word and His warnings seriously?

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2. Judah, the southern part of Israel, should have seen God's seriousness when it saw the northern part of Israel deported to Assyria in 722 BC. What about us? Do we heed what God does to others and realize He could do the same to us if we continue rebelling against Him?

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3. God led all of Israel into captivity because they rejected Him. 

2 Kings 24:20: For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence.

What about us? Do we genuinely believe there will be consequences to our rejection of God and living life as we want instead of following God's will for our lives?

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