Rachel’s Tomb, which is also home to the Mosque of Bilal Bin Rabah, is venerated as the burial place of the matriarch Rachel, the mother of St. Joseph. St. Jacob and his family were on their way to the city of Hebron, when his wife, Rachel, and mother of his child St. Joseph, passed away, and he buried her at the site. The Muslims also used the site as a mosque, and referred to it as the Mosque of Bilal Bin Rabah. In 1560, during the Ottoman Rule in Palestine, Mohammed Basha constructed a shrine and crowned it with a vault. Following the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the site was confiscated and Palestinians were prevented from entering it. With the construction of the Segregation Wall beginning in 2002, Rachel’s Tomb was annexed behind the Wall, to become part of Jerusalem, and surrounded it with fences and security towers.
-The site was considered a holy shrine for Muslims, Christians and Jews for 2000 years.
Geographical location
Contact information
Address: is located on the Jerusalem-Hebron Road at the northern entrance of Bethlehem
