Fiddling with the Roof: “The Tomb of Pharaoh’s Daughter”

The modest-looking structure of today bears little resemblance to its more-impressive appearance in years past, as depicted for example in an 1804 painting by Luigi Mayer. Among the most famous of the Silwan tombs, this above-ground edifice has been fancifully attributed to Solomon as a shrine for his Egyptian wife, the daughter of Pharaoh.

Hewn out of bedrock, the tomb bears on its front and sides an Egyptian-style cornice consisting of a broad band projecting from the top and two bands of molding, one concave, the other convex.

The tomb’s now-flat roof betrays signs of quarrying. In 1947 Nahman Avigad, of the Hebrew University, showed that the roof had originally included a pyramid on top of it. After removing layers of earth from the roof, Avigad noted small but distinct signs of a pyramid base, beginning about a foot from the edge and rising at a 45 degree angle.