page_title: Kidron Valley
section_title: Monumental tombs
hierarchical_section_title: Kidron Valley / Monumental tombs
caption_attribution_description: עברית: יד אבשלום מעל נחל קידרון שבעמק יהושפט, במבט מהצפון; מימין עולה דרך האופל ומשמאל ראוים את כפר שילוח. ברקע שכונת אבו טור ומעליה יער השלום והטיילת ארמון הנציב. Tomb of Absalom above Wadi Kidron in the valley of Yehoshafat; ןn this view from North we see the Ophel road ascending to the Old City wall, to left the village of Silwan. In the backround is the neighborhood of Abu Tor, above which is the Peace Forest and the Haas Promenade on the Hill of Evil Council.
context_page_description: The Kidron Valley is the valley originating slightly northeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, which then separates the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. It continues in a general south-easterly direction through the Judean desert in the West Bank, reaching the Dead Sea near the settlement of Ovnat, and descending 4,000 feet along its 20-mile course. The ancient Mar Saba monastery is located in the lower part of the valley.
  In its upper part, the neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz bears the valley's Arabic name. The settlement Kedar, located on a ridge above the valley, is named after the valley's Hebrew name.
  The Hebrew Bible calls the upper course Emek Yehoshafat, the "Valley of Josaphat". It appears in Jewish eschatologic prophecies, which include the return of Elijah, followed by the arrival of the Messiah, and the War of Gog and Magog and Judgment Day.
  The upper Kidron Valley holds Jerusalem's most important cemetery from the First Temple period, the Silwan necropolis, assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in the city, with rock-cut tombs dating between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE.
context_section_description: The three monumental tombs on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley are among the most well-known landmarks of ancient Jerusalem. These are, from north to south, the so-called "Tomb of Absalom" (Hebrew: Yad Avshalom), which rises in front of the so-called "Cave" or "Tomb of Jehoshaphat", the (correctly named) Tomb of Benei Hezir (Benei Hezir is the Hebrew for "sons of Hezir", meaning the Hezir priestly family ), and the so-called "Tomb of Zechariah", which could quite likely be the nefesh of the Tomb of Benei Hezir.
  Absalom's Tomb consists of two parts. First, a lower cube hewn out of the bedrock, decorated with engaged Ionic columns bearing a Doric frieze and crowned by an Egyptian cornice. This part of the monument contains a small chamber with an entrance and two arcosolia (arched funeral niches) and constitutes the actual tomb. The second part, built of ashlars, is placed on top of the rock-hewn cube. It consists of a square pedestal carrying a round drum, itself topped by a conical roof. The cone is slightly concave and is crowned by an Egyptian-style lotus flower. The upper part has the general shape of a tholos and is interpreted as a nefesh or monument for the tomb below, and possibly also for the adjacent "Cave of Jehoshaphat". The "Pillar of Absalom" is dated to the 1st century CE.
  Literally, the word nefesh means 'soul', but in a funerary context it is the term applied to a form of funerary monument. In descriptions of the tombs of the Jewish nobility, the pyramid shape is also emphasized as the mark of a tomb. This would imply that nefesh and pyramid were synonymous. The Jewish tombs in the Kidron Valley are the best examples of this form of nefesh. They appear as a rectangular, pyramid-capped monument. Similar forms of the nefesh decorate ossuaries, with the addition of a dome-capped column. In Jerusalem the nefesh as a tomb monument stood either above or beside the tomb; set on steps or on a base.
caption: The so-called "Tomb of Absalom" or the pillar of Absalom in Kidron Valley
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