
Jerusalem stone (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
: ; ) is a name applied to various types of pale
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
,
dolomite and
dolomitic limestone, common in and around
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
that have been used in building since ancient times.
One of these limestones, ''
meleke'', has been used in many of the region's most celebrated structures, including the
Western Wall.
Jerusalem stone continues to be used in construction and incorporated in
Jewish ceremonial art
Jewish ceremonial art, also referred to as Jewish ritual art, Jewish sacred art, and Jewish liturgical art, refers to objects used by Jews for ritual purposes. Because enhancing a mitzvah by performing it with an especially beautiful object is ...
such as
menorahs and
seder plates.
Geology

The highlands of Israel and Palestine are primarily underlain by sedimentary
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
,
dolomite and
dolomitic limestone. The stone quarried for building purposes, ranging in color from white to pink, yellow and tawny, is known collectively as Jerusalem stone. Soft
Senonian limestone is found to the east of Jerusalem, and has long been used as an inexpensive building material.
[Influence of Geological Conditions on the Development of Jerusalem, M. Avnimelech, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 181 (Feb., 1966), pp. 24-31] Stone of the
Cenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...
layers, known in Arabic as ''mizzi ahmar'' and ''mizzi yahudi'', is far more durable than Senonian limestone, but is very hard and was expensive to quarry using pre-modern methods.
Turonian
The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...
layers yield ''mizzi hilu'' or ''helu'' and ''meleke'', the most prized building stones.
The thin layered ''mizzi hilu'' is easily quarried and worked. ''Meleke'' is soft and easy to chisel, yet hardens with exposure to the atmosphere and becomes highly durable.
It was used for the great public buildings of antiquity, and for the construction of the
Western Wall.
Varieties
The mountains in and around Jerusalem offer mainly limestone, dolomite and related types of rock. The names in common use today have been adopted from the Arab masons of the 19th and 20th centuries. The varieties mostly used for building throughout history are:
* ''
Meleke'', the "royal" stone, a white, coarse crystalline limestone used for representative buildings like the
Western Wall and possibly other parts of the
Herodian Temple. It is easy to quarry, but once it is exposed to air it hardens and develops a pleasant yellow hue.
* ''Mizzi hilu'' ("sweet stone") is a hard whitish micritic limestone, usually covering beds of ''meleke''. It is a high quality building stone, but in times when the "royal stone" was preferred, the ''mizzi hilu'' was left as a roof over the cavities created by quarrying the ''meleke''.
* ''Mizzi ahmar'' ("red stone"), a hard dolomitic limestone, light-colored with reddish bands. In Jerusalem it was used for ''
ablaq''-style multi-colored masonry by the
Mamluks.
* ''Mizzi yahudi'' ("Jewish stone"), a dark grey or yellow crystalline dolomite or dolomitic limestone, appreciated for its hardness which makes it an excellent building material.
* ''Deir yassini'' is a variety of ''mizzi'' named after the village of
Deir Yassin. A reddish dolomitic limestone, it is quarried in slabs used for floor and roof tiles.
* ''Mizzi akhdar'' is a decorative green limestone quarried on a smaller scale. Its high density means that it can be finely polished. At the beginning of the 20th century it was five times more expensive than other varieties of ''mizzi''.
* ''Kakuleh'' or ''kakula'', a soft and light chalky limestone found on the
Mount of Olives. Due to its softness it was favoured during the Late
Second Temple Period
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...
for carving box-shaped
ossuaries for
secondary burials as well as for producing
stone vessels, using a procedure similar to the
potter's wheel. These vessels were considered by strictly observant Jews to always be ritually pure.
* ''Nari'' is the other softer type of stone used in the Jerusalem area. It is the whitish
caliche crust which develops through chemical processes on top of chalk or
marl
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
M ...
. Light, friable and far from homogeneous, it is not a resilient building material, but these very qualities attracted masons of the early
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...
who cut it into
ashlar
Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones.
Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...
s.
The setting sun reflected on the cream-colored limestone facade of both ancient and modern structures gives them a golden hue, giving rise to the term "
Jerusalem of Gold".
History
According to Israeli geologist Ithamar Perath, residents of Jerusalem in antiquity built their homes from Jerusalem stone quarried in the city and used the pit that remained as a cistern to collect rainwater beneath the home. Ancient quarries around Jerusalem include the site of the bus station in East Jerusalem, Rehov Hamadregot in
Nahlaot and the
Garden Tomb.
The remains of ancient quarries can also be seen near
Yemin Moshe, in the
Sanhedria neighborhood, and elsewhere.
Municipal laws in Jerusalem require that all buildings be faced with local Jerusalem stone. The ordinance dates back to the
British Mandate and the governorship of
Sir Ronald Storrs and was part of a master plan for the city drawn up in 1918 by Sir
William McLean, then city engineer of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
. Ironically, at the time of the
siege of Jerusalem, during the
1947–1949 Palestine war, it was noted that that requirement to use Jerusalem stone in new construction had limited the damage caused by the shelling during the siege.
In 1923, Aharon Grebelsky established the country's first Jewish-owned "marble" quarry in Jerusalem (actually of ''mizzi'' limestone, since there was no marble in the region of Palestine). Grebelsky's son Yechiel expanded the business, employing over 100 workers, including quarriers, stonemasons, fabricators and installers. The company inaugurated a new factory in
Mitzpe Ramon in January 2000.
In 2000, there were 650 stone-cutting enterprises run by
Palestinians
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...
in the
West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, producing a varied range of pink, sand, golden, and off-white bricks and tiles.
Symbolic use
The various "Jerusalem stones" are employed abroad in Jewish buildings as a symbol of Jewish identity. It has been used this way in many Jewish community centers, including the one in
San Jose, Costa Rica. Jerusalem stone is frequently used in contemporary synagogue design, to create a simulation of the Western Wall or as a backdrop for the
Holy Ark
A Torah ark (also known as the ''hekhal'', , or ''aron qodesh'', ) is an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls.
History
The ark is also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' () or ''aron ha-Ko ...
.
A
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...
church in
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, Brazil, ordered $8 million worth of Jerusalem stone to construct a
replica of the Temple of Solomon, or
Templo de Salomão that stands 180 feet tall.
["Solomon's Temple in Brazil would put Christ the Redeemer in the shade; Huge replica planned for Sâo Paulo would be twice the height of the iconic statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro]
Tom Phillips, July 21, 2010, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''.
See also
*
Limepit
A limepit is either a place where limestone is quarried, or a man-made pit used to burn lime stones in the same way that Lime kiln, modern-day kilns and furnaces constructed of brick are now used above ground for the Calcium carbonate#Calcination ...
*
List of types of limestone
*
Sydney sandstone
*
Tennessee marble
References
External links
Jewish stonecutters struggle to survive Haaretz
''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jerusalem Stone
Limestone
History of Jerusalem
Building stone
Geology of Palestine
Mining in Palestine
Geology of Israel
Mining in Israel
National symbols of Israel