This mysterious cave located east of Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem goes back about 1,000 feet under the northern Old City wall, and about 2,000 years in history.
It is said that Zedekiah, Jerusalem’s last biblical king, a Babylonian puppet deposed of during the final siege on the city, attempted to flee Jerusalem to Jericho through this cave. He was captured and brought before the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, where his sons were murdered in front of him and his eyes were put out (2 Kings 25:1-6). In keeping with this tragic story, at the back of the cave is a tiny spring, known as “Zedekiah’s tears.” That is where you discover the cave has no exit; archaeologists tell us that in fact it was a quarry from which Herod the Great hewed stone to build the Temple.
