STILL MORE ON RACHEL'S TOMB: Leen Ritmeyer, at his Ritmeyer Archaeological Design blog, and Tod Bolen, at his Bible Places blog, present conflicting views on where the actual tomb of Rachel was. As Todd notes, it does not bear on the current debate about UNESCO calling it a mosque. I don't know whether there was an actual Rachel to start with, but I have no problem with the possibility that there was a different and older tradition about where the matriarch was buried.
Background on the UNESCO controversy is here and here.
