Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

November 25, 2025

The Story of Jerusalem’s Stones

An archaeological map of subterranean quarries.

Today, Jerusalem is given its distinctive appearance by the namesake variety of stone, out of which most of its buildings are constructed. Yet it was not always so, and in the Hebrew Bible there are suggestions that prestigious buildings were made from cedarwood rather than stone. The quarrying of rock for construction projects nonetheless goes back to ancient times in the Jewish capital, as evidenced by a recent study that aimed to map the city’s historic quarries. The Jerusalem Post reports:

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