Tomb of Benei Hezir
About
A Hebrew inscription carved above the entrance identifies this as the burial cave of the Benei Hezir, a family of priests who served in the Jerusalem Temple. Two rock-cut columns stand between pilasters below a Doric frieze, making it the oldest of the four monumental Second Temple-era tombs clustered in the Kidron Valley. Scholars date its excavation to the Hasmonean period, roughly the 2nd or early 1st century BCE. It remains a burial complex rather than a solid monument like its neighbors.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →