Zedekiah's Cave

A trip to Zedekiah's Cave can be a wonderful part of a Jewish Israel tour. Located east of Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, it is 1,000ft deep under the northern Old City wall and contains approximately 2,000 years worth of history. Legend says that Jerusalem's last biblical king, Zedekiah, tried to flee Jerusalem to Jericho through the cave. He was unsuccessful, however, and was captured and brought before Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar where his sons were killed in front of him and his eyes were then removed (2 Kings 25:1-6). The cave's end is not an opening, but a small spring knows as "Zedekiah's tears". Archaeologists discovered that the cave was actually a quarry used to obtain stone by Herod the Great to build the Temple. The first meeting of Freemasons in 1868 was held in Ottoman Palestine by candlelight in Zedekiah's Cave. Also referred to as "King Solomon's Quarries", Zedekiah's Cave would be a wonderful stop on any Israel tour.