Central East Jerusalem

Midway between Damascus and Herod’s Gates, Solomon’s Quarries plunge to the city’s bowels, providing a refuge from the midday heat. Many believe that it was in these cool caves, which extend about 250m beneath the Old City, that workers quarried limestone for the building of ancient Jerusalem during the First Temple period. To separate blocks of stone from the cave walls, wooden planks were set in crevices and soaked with water; as the planks expanded they wedged the stone apart. Tradition has it that Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, fled the city through a passage to Solomon’s quarries when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded in 587 BC. The sign for the quarries reads “Zedekiah’s Cave” (open Sun.-Sat. 9am-lpm).

Farther east on Suleiman St., opposite the northeastern corner of the city walls, a driveway leads to the Rockefeller Archeological Museum (tel. 28 22 51), one of the country’s best showcases. Its benefactor, John D. Rockefeller, once asked to be reminded “whether it was one or two million dollars I donated towards the museum.” Needless to say, budget travel was not a concern of his. The museum’s collection records the region’s history, beginning with the remains of 100,000-year-old Mt. Carmel Man, and illustrates the cultural impact of various conquering civilizations. Designed in the 1920s by British architect Austin S. B. Harrison in his unique Orientalist-Gothic-eclectic style, the layout of the museum can be confusing. (Open Sun.-Thurs. 10am-5pm, Fri.-Sat. 10am-2pm. Admission NIS10, students NIS7. Take Egged bus #27 or 23.)