Rachel's Tomb
| Kever Rachel (Hebrew); Qubr Raheel (Arabic) | |
Popular imagery of the tomb depicting it
as it appeared during the late 19th century |
|
 Shown within the West Bank
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| Location | Bethlehem municipality |
|---|---|
| Region | West Bank |
| Coordinates | 31°43′10″N 35°12′08″E / 31.7193434°N 35.202116°E |
| Type | tomb, prayer area |
| History | |
| Founded | Ottoman |
| Cultures | Jews, Muslims, Christians |
| Site notes | |
| Management | Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs |
| Public access | Limited |
| Website | keverrachel.com |
| Venerated as the third holiest site in Judaism | |
Rachel's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר רחל translit. Kever Rakhel, Arabic: قبر راحيل translit. Qubr Raheel) is the site revered as the burial place of the Hebrew matriarch Rachel. The tomb, located at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, is considered holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Since the mid-1990s the site has been referred to by Palestinians as the Bilal bin Rabah mosque (Arabic: مسجد بلال بن رباح). The burial place of the matriarch Rachel as mentioned in the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament, and in Muslim literature is contested between this site and several others to the north. Although this site is considered unlikely to be the actual site of the grave, it is by far the most recognized candidate.
The earliest extra-biblical records describing this tomb as Rachel's burial place date to the first decades of the 4th century CE. The structure in its current form dates from the Ottoman period, and is situated in an Ottoman-period Muslim cemetery. When Sir Moses Montefiore renovated the site in 1841 and obtained the keys for the Jewish community, he also added an antechamber, including a mihrab for Muslim prayer, to ease Muslim fears. According to the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the tomb was to be part of the internationally administered zone of Jerusalem, but the area was occupied by The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which prohibited Jews from entering the area. Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, though not initially falling within Area C, the site has come under the control of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs.
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