ABSTRACT
Another factor complicating the issue is that the Hebron area is not composed of just one antiquity site. While most authorities are agreed that biblical Hebron should be identified with Jebel er-Rumeidah, there are other close-by areas that were also occupied in antiquity. Probably the most visited spot by tourists has been the Haram el-Khalil (“The Enclosure of Abraham,” see Figure 47, p. 147), a site associated with a burial cave (“Machpelah”) which tradition claims contains the bones of Abraham and several other notables, including Jacob, Joseph, and even Adam and Eve! The monumental architecture of the building constructed over the cave is usually credited to Herod the Great. However, for all of the published descriptions of this place, no scientific archaeological investigation of the cave and its contents has ever been allowed. Thus any conclusions made about this cave vis-à-vis the stories of the Ancestors is little more than speculation.
