The Cave of the Seven Sleepers (Arabic: كهف الرقيم, Kahf ar-Raqīm) is an archaeological and religious site in al-Rajib, a village to the east of Amman. It is claimed that this cave housed the Seven Sleepers (Arabic: اصحاب الكهف, romanized: aṣḥāb al kahf, lit. 'Companions of the Cave' in the Koran)—a group of young men who, according to Byzantine Christian and Islamic sources, fled the religious persecution of Roman emperor Decius. Legend has it that these men hid in a cave around AD 250, emerging miraculously centuries later - according to the Koran, 309 lunar years later.
Add new comment