The Tomb of Zechariah is an ancient stone monument adjacent to the Bnei Hazir tomb

Bnei Hazir tomb

The Tomb of Benei Hezir is the oldest of four monumental rock-cut tombs that stand in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem and date to the period of the Second Temple. It is a complex of burial caves. The tomb was originally accessed from a single rock-cut stair-well which descends to the tomb from the...

.

Architectural description

The monument is a monolith

Monolithic architecture

Monolithic architecture is a style of construction in which a building is carved, cast or excavated from a single piece of material. The most basic form of monolithic architecture is the monolith, such as the monolithic churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia or the Pancha Rathas in India.Buildings with a...

 -- it is completely carved out of the solid rock and does not contain a burial chamber. The lowest part of the monument is a crepidoma

Crepidoma

Crepidoma is an architectural term related to ancient Greek buildings. The crepidoma is the platform of, usually, three levels upon which the superstructure of the building is erected. The levels typically decrease in size incrementally, forming a series of steps along all or some sides of the...

, a base made of three steps. Above it there is a stylobate

Stylobate

In classical Greek architecture, a stylobate is the top step of the crepidoma, the stepped platform on which colonnades of temple columns are placed...

, upon which there is a decoration of two ionic columns between two half ionic columns and at the corners there are two pilaster

Pilaster

A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....

s. The capitals are of the Ionic order and are decorated with the egg-and-dart

Egg-and-dart

Egg-and-dart or Egg-and-tongue is an ornamental device often carved in wood, stone, or plaster quarter-round ovolo mouldings, consisting of an egg-shaped object alternating with an element shaped like an arrow, anchor or dart. Egg-and-dart enrichment of the ovolo molding of the Ionic capital is...

 decoration. The upper part of the monument is an Egyptian

Art of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic...

-style cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

 upon which sits a pyramid. Interestingly the fine masonry and decoration that is visible on the western side, the facade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

, is on the western side alone. On the other sides of the tomb the work is extremely rough and unfinished; it seems as if the work was abruptly stopped before the artists could finish the job.

Identification of the tomb

According to a Jewish tradition, which is first suggested by the 1215 CE writings of Menahem haHebroni, this is the tomb of the priest Zechariah Ben Jehoiada

Zechariah ben Jehoiada

Zechariah Ben Jehoiada was the son of Jehoiada, the high priest in the times of Ahaziah and Jehoash of Judah .After the death of Jehoiada, Zechariah boldly condemned both king Jehoash and the people for their rebellion against God...

, a figure that the Book of Chronicles claims to have been stoned:

And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord

There is no documentary evidence to validate the traditional claim, and it does not contain a body as it is a solid object carved from the rock.

The style of the construction, which includes Hellenic details such as Ionic columns

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

, is similar to that of the Bnei Hazir tomb, and several writers think that they are near-contemporary with one another; scholars specialising in funerary practices and monuments have ascribed a first century CE date to the Tomb of Zechariah, making it impossible to be the tomb of the 7th/8th/9th century BCE Zechariah ben Jehoiada. It has been proposed that the Tomb of Zechariah is actually the nefesh (a Jewish funerary monument similar to the Greek stele

Stele

A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...

) for the Bnei Hazir tomb

Bnei Hazir tomb

The Tomb of Benei Hezir is the oldest of four monumental rock-cut tombs that stand in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem and date to the period of the Second Temple. It is a complex of burial caves. The tomb was originally accessed from a single rock-cut stair-well which descends to the tomb from the...

, which is accessed from a rock-cut passage adjacent to the monument, and which states that it has an adjacent magnificent structure, an item not otherwise identified.