King Solomon's Quarries
Me'arat Tzedkiyahu or Cave of Zedekiah, more commonly known as the Quarries of King Solomon, is a deep cavern, opening beneath the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, and extending for hundreds of meters below the surface of the city in the direction of the Temple Mount.
The cave's entrance, which had become lost in the course of centuries of vandalism and neglect, was rediscovered in 1854. The opening lies at the base of the wall, 100 meters north of Damascus Gate and near King Herod's Gate. It is one of the most extensive caves in Israel, measuring about 220 meters in length and some 900 meters in circumference. According to tradition. the cave extends all the way to the plain of Jericho. The last King of Judah, Zedekiah, is said to have fled through this cavern when Jerusalem fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, in the summer of 587 B.C. It was Josephus Flavius, the great Jewish historian of the first century C.E. who for the first time called it the "Royal Cavern". This later became "King Solomon's Quarries". Whatever truth there may be in that designation, the fact remains that the cave did serve as a quarry for building stones, and the half-sawn blocks of stone still in place give mute testimony to this effect.
The type of stone found in the cave is the white limestone locally known as Melech, or "royal" stone. This is very good for building and, although it is not too hard, it does not flake off. Very large blocks of this stone can be quarried.
The stone at the cave opening is of a different kind, called mizzi-helou or "sweet" stone. It is easily worked though its striations prevent its being used in large blocks. In the cave there is also a third kind of stone, known as mizziahmar or "red" stone.
The cave is divided into chambers, separated by broad columns left by the quarries to support the ceiling. In the inner chambers, traces of the techniques used by the workers can be observed. Broad slits were hewn along the wall and dry wooden wedges were driven into them. Water was then poured over the wedges until eventually the expanding wood cracked the stone along the slits. This primitive method of quarrying was quite effective and is still used in many parts of the world.
Another interesting point, is that because of the cavern's depth underground--nearly 90 meters--the sounds of tools could not have been heard at the construction site of King Solomon's Temple, on the Temple Mount. This would explain verse 6:7 in the First Book of Kings: "In building the Temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the Temple site while it was being built." Another legend is that deep inside the cave are buried the treasures of the Temple, hidden by the Priests when the Roman armies under Titus were besieging the city.
A few years after the cave's entrance had been rediscovered, in 1868, this was the place where the first recorded Masonic ceremony performed in Palestine took place, on Wednesday, May 13.
The initiative came from M.W. Bro. Robert Morris, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, who had come to the Holy Land in search of traces of Freemasonry from the time of King Solomon. Rob Morris, as he signed his name, found only a few isolated Masons living in Palestine, which was under Turkish rule. Bro. Morris had met in Jerusalem Bro. Charles Warren, the British military engineer and archaeologist, who had been sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund and who became the first W.M. of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 in London, the premier Lodge of Research in the world.
As Bro. Morris relates in his book Freemasonry in the Holy Land (New York, 1872, p. 30), after the conclusion of the ceremony, the participants separated and "endeavouring to return to the entrance through the devious and interminable passages of that enormous cavern, lost our way, and came nigh being compelled to remain there until our friends would search for us, the next day." This incident will serve to give an idea about the size of the underground quarry.
The cave's entrance, which had become lost in the course of centuries of vandalism and neglect, was rediscovered in 1854. The opening lies at the base of the wall, 100 meters north of Damascus Gate and near King Herod's Gate. It is one of the most extensive caves in Israel, measuring about 220 meters in length and some 900 meters in circumference. According to tradition. the cave extends all the way to the plain of Jericho. The last King of Judah, Zedekiah, is said to have fled through this cavern when Jerusalem fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, in the summer of 587 B.C. It was Josephus Flavius, the great Jewish historian of the first century C.E. who for the first time called it the "Royal Cavern". This later became "King Solomon's Quarries". Whatever truth there may be in that designation, the fact remains that the cave did serve as a quarry for building stones, and the half-sawn blocks of stone still in place give mute testimony to this effect.
The type of stone found in the cave is the white limestone locally known as Melech, or "royal" stone. This is very good for building and, although it is not too hard, it does not flake off. Very large blocks of this stone can be quarried.
The stone at the cave opening is of a different kind, called mizzi-helou or "sweet" stone. It is easily worked though its striations prevent its being used in large blocks. In the cave there is also a third kind of stone, known as mizziahmar or "red" stone.
The cave is divided into chambers, separated by broad columns left by the quarries to support the ceiling. In the inner chambers, traces of the techniques used by the workers can be observed. Broad slits were hewn along the wall and dry wooden wedges were driven into them. Water was then poured over the wedges until eventually the expanding wood cracked the stone along the slits. This primitive method of quarrying was quite effective and is still used in many parts of the world.
Another interesting point, is that because of the cavern's depth underground--nearly 90 meters--the sounds of tools could not have been heard at the construction site of King Solomon's Temple, on the Temple Mount. This would explain verse 6:7 in the First Book of Kings: "In building the Temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the Temple site while it was being built." Another legend is that deep inside the cave are buried the treasures of the Temple, hidden by the Priests when the Roman armies under Titus were besieging the city.
A few years after the cave's entrance had been rediscovered, in 1868, this was the place where the first recorded Masonic ceremony performed in Palestine took place, on Wednesday, May 13.
The initiative came from M.W. Bro. Robert Morris, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, who had come to the Holy Land in search of traces of Freemasonry from the time of King Solomon. Rob Morris, as he signed his name, found only a few isolated Masons living in Palestine, which was under Turkish rule. Bro. Morris had met in Jerusalem Bro. Charles Warren, the British military engineer and archaeologist, who had been sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund and who became the first W.M. of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 in London, the premier Lodge of Research in the world.
As Bro. Morris relates in his book Freemasonry in the Holy Land (New York, 1872, p. 30), after the conclusion of the ceremony, the participants separated and "endeavouring to return to the entrance through the devious and interminable passages of that enormous cavern, lost our way, and came nigh being compelled to remain there until our friends would search for us, the next day." This incident will serve to give an idea about the size of the underground quarry.
Comments
Post a Comment