Machpelah: Portion; double cave, the cave which Abraham bought, together with the
field in which it stood, from Ephron the Hittite, for a family
burying-place
(Genesis 23:1)ff It is one of those Bible localities about
the identification of which there can be no doubt. It was on the
slope of a hill on the east of Hebron, "before Mamre." Here were laid
the bodies of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah
(Genesis 23:19; 25:9; 49:31; 50:13) Over the cave an ancient Christian church
was erected, probably in the time of Justinian, the Roman emperor.
This church has been converted into a Muslim mosque. The whole is
surrounded by the el-Haram i.e., "the sacred enclosure," about 200
feet long, 115 broad, and of an average height of about 50 This
building, from the immense size of some of its stones, and the manner
in which they are fitted together, is supposed by some to have been
erected in the days of David or of Solomon, while others ascribe it
to the time of Herod. It is looked upon as the most ancient and
finest relic of Jewish architecture. On the floor of the mosque are
erected six large cenotaphs as monuments to the dead who are buried
in the cave beneath. Between the cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebekah there
is a circular opening in the floor into the cavern below, the cave of
Machpelah. Here it may be that the body of Jacob, which was embalmed
in Egypt, is still preserved (much older embalmed bodies have
recently been found in the cave of Deir el-Bahari in Egypt,)
(See PHARAOH)
though those of the others there buried may have long ago mouldered
into dust. The interior of the mosque was visited by the Prince of
Wales in 1862 by a special favour of the Muslim authorities. An
interesting account of this visit is given in Dean Stanley's Lectures
on the Jewish Church. It was also visited in 1866 by the Marquis of
Bute, and in 1869 by the late Emperor (Frederick) of Germany, then the
Crown Prince of Prussia. In 1881 it was visited by the two sons of the
Prince of Wales, accompanied by Sir C. Wilson and others. (See
Palestine Quarterly Statement, October 1882
