How the French Government Hijacked the Tomb of Ancient Jewish Monarchs in Jerusalem

In June, the French government reopened a site in Jerusalem known, somewhat misleadingly, as the Tomb of the Kings, after it had been closed to visitors for nearly a decade. The tomb is the burial place of Queen Helena of Adiabene, an ancient kingdom located in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan, who converted to Judaism in the 1st century CE. Also buried there are her son Izates II and two wealthy Jerusalem notables from the same period. In the 19th century, a French archaeologist began excavating the site, insisting, contrary to the evidence, that it was the resting place of the biblical kings of Judea. Freddy Eytan and Richard Rossin explain the history of the site and France’s dubious claims to it: