The Tombs of the Kings ( Keveri HaMlakhim; ; ) are a rock-cut funerary complex in East Jerusalem believed to be the burial site of Queen Helene of Adiabene (died c. AD 50–56), hence: Helena's Monuments. The tombs are located 820 meters (half a mile) north of Jerusalem's Old City walls in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (Hebrew: ; Arabic: ) The grandeur of the site led to the belief that the tombs had once been the burial place of the kings of Judah, hence the name Tombs of the Kings; but the tombs are now associated with Queen Helena of Adiabene. According to this theory, Queen Helena chose the site to bury her son Isates and others of her dynasty. More recent research by noted French scholar and Dominican monk Jean-Baptiste Humbert has concluded that the tomb was likely designed for Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great. The site is located east of the intersection of Nablus Road and Saladin Street. The gate of the property is marked "Tombeau des Rois", French for "Tomb of the Kings." Public access On May 15, 2019, Hekdesh, a Jewish organisation (Association Hekdesh du Tombeau des rois), hired Gilles-William Goldnadel, a French lawyer, and took the French government to court. Goldnadel tried to prove that the site, after being purchased in 1878 by a French-Jewish woman, Berthe Amélie Bertrand, or by the brothers Péreire, French-Jewish bankers, was left to the French state on condition that the Jews would preserve the right to visit the site (see below at History). Goldnadel also hopes to reclaim the sarcophagus of queen Helena of Adiabene, presently housed at the Louvre. On June 27, 2019, the French consulate in Jerusalem reopened the site to visitors purchasing tickets in advance. General layout From street level a hewn staircase, measuring in width and having a length of , descends into a carved courtyard. Alongside the staircase there is built a drainage system and cisterns. The main courtyard sinks down to a depth of within the bedrock and has a total measurement of approximately x . The portal is on its western façade and is ascended by a flight of three steps. In front of the burial cave formerly stood two pillars and two pilasters carved in the rock face and which are now scarcely visible. Above the portal is a Doric frieze, made of metopes and triglyphs, with