The Sanhedriyya Tomb Complex

Instead of erecting a monumental nefesh (a pyramid structure atop a tomb), some elite Judean families showed off their wealth and status by decorating a tomb façade, as in the case of the sixty-three rock-cut chambers in the Tomb of the Sanhedrin. The Tomb of the Sanhedrin, also known as the Tomb of the Judges or the Sanhedriyya Tomb, is part of an even larger Second Temple–period underground burial complex located north of Jerusalem’s Old City. The complex received its name from the number of tombs it possesses, as it is close to the number of members of the Sanhedrin (seventy-one to seventy-three members; see Sanhedrin). Some of the burial niches, notably those in the outer chambers, hosted sarcophagi. Other burial niches held bodies laid out on bare rock ledges during a period of decomposition; afterward, the bones would be collected and deposited in the niche in an ossuary.