(Israel Hayom) Nadav Shragai - The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is believed to be the biblical burial place that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite, containing the tombs of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. Muslims today prevent any access to the underground caverns below the structure built by King Herod, but a doctoral thesis by Dr. Noam Arnon reveals details of past visits to the caverns below the site. A young British Jew, Jack Seklan, visited the site in 1933 and Arnon met him in 2012, when Seklan was 97, but still sound of mind and with a fantastic memory. Seklan described in detail how, accompanied by the British officer in charge of the site, he descended three flights of stairs into the subterranean hall deep underground. After passing through a door, recalls Arnon, "they descended another few steps and reached a barred window overlooking an underground hall...built out of natural rock....The Muslim guide explained to them that these were the graves of the forefathers themselves." Arnon himself clandestinely went deep into the cave in 1981, reaching a double cave that dated back to the time of the patriarchs. In 2014, the site was analyzed with ground-penetrating radar. "We didn't find a grave on which it was written 'Abraham is buried here,' but when you weigh all the historical and archaeological data, the writings of travelers, biblical sources, topography; all of that together shows us that this is indeed the case."
2021-11-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive