Louis Felicien de Saulcy was searching for ancient coins. It was 1863 and the prominent French numismatist was excavating an area in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood not far from where the US consulate is situated today.

On the third day of the dig which required a permit from the Ottoman authorities one of the workers stepped on a tile in the floor of a structure. The tile moved revealing a hidden alcove beneath it.

When de Saulcy and his crew made their way inside the chamber they found something far more significant than ancient monies. There lay a beautiful sarcophagus weighing more than a ton about 1200 kilograms. A pair of inscriptions were written on the stone coffin — in Estrangelo (an old version of Syriac a dialect of Eastern Aramaic) and in Aramaic— that read “Tzeran Malka” and “Tzaddan Malkata.” Both mean Queen Sarah.

The formal “door” of the tomb the archeologists discovered was covered with a large rolling stone. Back in the first century the entrance was likely opened with a “secret mechanism” that involved water pressure and a system of weights.

In de Saulcy’s day most people believed that the magnificent tomb — which is generally regarded as the largest and most beautiful in Jerusalem — housed members of the Davidic dynasty. Indeed it was called the “Tomb of the Kings” a name that has remained to this day. Because of this widespread speculation de Saulcy concluded that the bones inside the sarcophagus belonged to the wife of one of the kings of Judea from the First Beis HaMikdash. Yet most of his contemporaries disagreed surmising that the bones which were wrapped in shrouds with golden embroidery belonged to Queen Helene of Adiabene a famous giyores who changed her name to Sarah after converting in the year 30 CE.

Once word spread that excavators were digging up human bones — which is against halachah — the dig was suspended. The Jewish community even asked philanthropist Moses Montefiore and members of the Rothschild family to intervene and rescue the bones. Despite their efforts the sarcophagus and the bones inside were sent to Paris France where they remain to this very day.

As to the true identity of the woman in the coffin all archeologists and historians agree today that it was Queen Helene of Adiabene who died in 56 CE. They also believe that the “Tomb of the Kings” didn’t actually house members of the Davidic dynasty but rather other members of Queen Helene’s royal family.

The queen’s coffin remained in storage in the basement of the Louvre Museum until 1982 when it was brought up for an exhibition marking the centenary of the death of its discoverer de Saulcy. Afterwards Queen Helene’s sarcophagus was sent back into storage.

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