Ramat Rahel

1km/0.75mi beyond the Monastery of St Elias on the road to Jerusalem is the kibbutz of Ramat Rahel, founded in 1926, destroyed in 1948, when it was a front line post between Israeli and Jordanian forces, and rebuilt in 1950. The name refers to Rachel's Tomb. On the 818m/2,684ft high hill a fortified palace of the kings of Judah has been excavated. Built in the ninth or eighth century B.C., it remained in use until the time of King Joachim (608-598 B.C.), was rebuilt in 535 B.C., after the Babylonian Captivity, and finally destroyed, probably in A.D. 70, by the Romans.