Rachel's Tomb

Rachel's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר רחל‎ translit. Kever Rakhel), also known since the 1990s^[2] as the Bilal bin Rabah mosque (Arabic: مسجد بلال بن رباح‎) to Muslims and UNESCO^[3] is the name given to a small religious building^[4] encased in concrete^[5] revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.^[3][6] The tomb is located within a Muslim cemetery^[7] in a walled enclave biting into^[8] the outskirts of Bethlehem, 460 meters south of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary,^[1] in the West Bank. The burial place of the matriarch Rachel as mentioned in the Jewish and Christian Old Testament, and in Muslim literature^[9] is contested between this site and several others to the north.^[10] The earliest extra-biblical records describing this tomb as Rachel's burial place date to the first decades of the 4th century AD. The domed structure containing the tomb dates from the Muslim Ottoman period^[11] and when Sir Moses Montefiore renovated the site in 1841 after obtaining the key for the Jewish community, he added a antechamber which included a mihrab for Muslim prayer.^[12][4] 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 Jordan, which prohibited Israelis from entering the area. Though not initially falling within Area C, the site has come under the control of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs.^[13] Rachel's tomb is the third holiest site in Judaism.^[14] Jews have made pilgrimage to the tomb since ancient times,^[15] and it has become one of the cornerstones of Jewish-Israeli identity.^[16]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel's Tomb
• Page 339 - Duncan, D. E., 1995, Hernando de Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas: Crown Publishing, New York, 570p.