Zedekiah's Caves or Solomon's Quarries

In 1854, Biblical scholar Dr. James Turner Barclay (1807-1874) was walking outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem with his son and his dog. Suddenly the dog vanished and the search for the dog (trapped in a deep cistern) resulted in the discovery of the largest artificial cave ever to be uncovered in Israel. Even 150 years after its discovery, the 9000 square metre big cave with an average height of 4-storey-building, remains shrouded in mystery. The limestones qurried here are of superior quality and known as Melekh (Royal), were used for construction of Royal edifices. Based on the fact that these artificial caves are near the Temple Mount and the Holy Bible records King Solomn's 80,000 quarries (I Kings 5:29-31); scholars assume it to be the same Solomon's Quarries whose stones were used to build the Jerusalem Temple. Freemasons consider King Solomon their patron (the greatest builder of Biblical period ) and believe that their ancestors held their Jerusalem meetings here. Some hold the view that the royal tombs of the House of Judah (where most of the Jewish Kings are buried) were in these caverns.

Regarding the name Zedekiah's Cave: Babylonians besieged Jerusalem (587 BC) and captured Zedekiah, the last Jewish King of Davidic dynasty from the plains of Jericho (Jeremiah 52:7-8). Jewish traditions say that Zedekiah attempted to escape through these caves that extended from Jerusalem to the Plains of Jericho. Many legends were later added to this story. Today, the water seeping through one of the cave's ceiling and draining into a small pool is called Zedekiah's Tears , referring to the tears shed by him upon seein his children executed by Babylonians (2 Kings 25:1-7; 2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 32:4,5; 34:2, 3; 39:1-7; 52:4-11; Ezekiel 12:12). To walk through the complex network of these dark and cold caves were a different experience for me. Moreover, it was a bit scary to be there as I was the only person inside the complex.