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Zedekiah's Cave – also known as Solomon's Quarries – is a five-acre underground meleke limestone quarry that runs the length of five city blocks under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was carved over a period of several thousand years and is a remnant of the biggest quarry in Jerusalem, having once stretched all the way from Jeremiah's Grotto and the Garden Tomb to the walls of the Old City.The entrance to Zedekiah's Cave is just beneath the Old City wall, between the Damascus and Herod Gates, about 500 feet east of the former. Beyond the narrow entrance, the cave slopes down into a vast 300-foot-long auditorium-like chamber. Drops of water, known as “Zedekiah's tears”, trickle through the ceiling .Beyond the “auditorium”, are a series of artificial galleries hewn by ancient stonecutters into chaotic, sometimes bizarre, patterns and formations. Paths give access to every corner of the quarry system, which takes at least 30 minutes to explore thoroughly. Chisel marks are visible in many sections and in some galleries huge, nearly finished building blocks destined for some long-ago structure are locked into the rock where the stonecutters left them centuries ago. In a few places the stones are marked by Arabic, Greek, Armenian and English charcoal and engraved graffiti (e.g., "W. E. Blackstone Jan. 1889"). Several plaques explaining some of the myriad legends associated with the site have been mounted on the cave walls.From entrance to the furthest point, the cave extends about 650 feet. Its maximum width is about 330 feet and its depth is generally about 30 feet below the street level of the Muslim Quarter.Only the mouth of Zedekiah's Cave is a natural phenomenon. The interior of the cavern was carved by slaves and laborers over a period of several thousand years; precisely when quarrying began is impossible to determine.Herod the Great (73 BC – 4 BC) certainly used the main quarry at Zedekiah's Cave for building blocks in the renovation of the Temple and its retaining walls, including what is known today as the Western Wall. Stone from the quarry may also have been utilized for the building projects of Herod Agrippa I (10 BC - 44 AD). The subterranean quarry would have been usable in all seasons and any weather.When the Roman Jewish writer Flavius Josephus (37 - 100 AD) mentions the "Royal Caverns" of the Old City, it is thought that he is probably referring to Zedekiah's Cave.The midrash known as Numbers Rabbah (1512) mentions the cave when it says that "One who observed the Sabbath in a cave, even though it be like the cave of Zedekiah, which was eighteen miles long, may walk through the whole of it..."Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566), the Ottoman sultan who built the present walls around the Old City, also apparently mined the quarry, ultimately sealing it up around 1540 because of security concerns.The site was then lost to history for over 300 years until, in 1854, the American missionary James Turner Barclay was walking his dog one day. According to the story, the dog, following a fox’s scent, dug through dirt near the Old City wall and suddenly disappeared through an opening. After nightfall, Barclay and his two sons, dressed in Arab garb and carrying candles, slithered through the newly opened crack to discover the vast cavern as well as the skeletons of previous visitors. The legend that the cave was a hiding place of King Zedekiah (a 6th Century BC Judean king, dates back to at least the 11th Century AD. At that time, Biblical commentator Rashi wrote that Zedekiah tried to escape from the troops sent by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem. (The story was also repeated in the next century by the commentator Radak.) According to Rashi: “There was a cave from the palace of Zedekiah to the plain of Jericho and he fled through the cave." He added that God sent a buck running along the surface on top of the cave as Zedekiah was walking down below. The soldiers chased the buck and arrived at the exit of the cave just as Zedekiah was coming out, enabling them to capture and blind him. Thus was born the legend and name of “Zedekiah's Cave”. ( In the mid-1980s, The Jerusalem Foundation built paths and installed lights throughout the cavern, facilitating tourist access. Last year the East Jerusalem Development Corporation carried out restorations of the cave. The cave is open daily from except Fridays 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. and an entrance fee is charged. Tickets for visits on Shabbat (Saturday) can be ordered online at www.pami.co.il .Visits may be self-guided or part of an organized tour of the Old City.
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