Silwan

The village of Silwan, located south of the Mount of Olives, was built on a 10th-9th Cent BC cemetery. From the western side of the Kidron Valley the entrances to the tombs look like a series of square windows in the middle of the cliff below the houses. These tombs never seemed to have been used. Centuries later the Jews began to use this area for their burial. One of these tombs—popularly and romantically named "the Tomb of Pharaoh's Daughter"—was mistakenly thought to have been the temple Solomon built for the Egyptian princess he married. More interestingly is that identified as the tomb of Shebna, one of Hezekiah's officials sent to negotiate with the Assyrians (2 Ki 18:18; Isa 36:3ff.).

Standing on the City of David, one can easily look down onto the houses in Silwan. It is tantalizing to imagine that this was how David, lazing about in his palace while his soldiers fought in Rabbah, could have looked across the valley to see Bathsheba bathing in her house in Silwan and gave way to his own fall into adultery and disasters.