Zedekiah's Cave

We were walking down to the Old City and came across Zedekiah's Cave or Solomon's Quarry (between Herod's Gate and Damascus Gate), and went in to get a break from the rain. Luckily they accepted my student card from Copenhagen (A had no problem with his student card from the Hebrew University), and we went in with a brochure on the place.

The cave is huge and man-made, and stretching under a great part of the Muslim Quarters of the Old City, and stones from it has been used to a lot of different, significant buildings in Jerusalem (though I don't know which). It is called Solomon's Quarries because tales go, that King Solomon used stones from this very quarry to built the First Temple on the Temple Mount - and the Freemasons, who consider Solomon as the first and greatest Freemason, hold their meetings in Jerusalem in this cave.

It is called Zedekiah's Cave, because another story (from the Bible; Jeremiah 52:7-8) tells that Zedekiah, the last of the Judean kings from Jerusalem, fled from the Chaldean troops through the cave - and the water dripping from the ceiling are called Zedekiah's Tears, because of the tears he shed when he saw his children executed.


The cave is worth a visit for people who're very fond of rocks, or if you want to get out of the rain or away from the Sun and warmth, or want a bit of quiteness in the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem. But otherwise I think the most interesting about the cave is all the stories connected to it.