In I got It!
A cave and burial site
In the year 5662 (1902ce), a burial cave was uncovered in Yerushalayim, on the western slopes of Mount Scopus – it became known as ‘Nikanor’s cave’.
The cave was revealed during the process of enlarging Grey Hill, a site housing English art, on Mount Scopus itself.
The cave gained its name owing to a chest-like structure that was found in it. Three of its sides were decorated, and on the fourth was written ‘Resting place of Nikanor’. Three lines on the inscribed side were written in Greek and another line was written in either Hebrew or Aramaic, evident by the holy names that appeared there.
Part of the inscription read: “These are the bones of Nikanor of Alexandria who made the great doors. Nikanor Alksei.”
Karlmon-Gnu, who deciphered the ‘resting place of Nikanor’, identified the word ‘Alksei’ as ‘Aleksandroni’ – Nikanor having come from Alexandria in Egypt to Israel.
The story of the doors known to us only serves to confirm this reading of the inscription. Nikanor was on his way to Eretz Yisroel from Egypt, bearing with him on the ship the brass doors he intended to donate to the Holy Temple. A great storm arose, and the sailors, in their attempt to lighten the ship, cast one of the doors overboard. When they then attempted to seize the second door to share the fate of the first, Nikanor threw himself upon it to prevent them – at this moment, the storm abated and the raging waters became calm. When the ship finally approached port in Yaffo, the door that had been cast into the sea suddenly appeared, floating towards dry land. Both doors were subsequently erected in the Temple and were referred to as ‘The Gates of Nikanor’.
The chest with its inscription is currently housed in the British Museum.