How was the tomb of the matriarchs determined?

Question

Apparently there is a "tomb of the Matriarchs" in Tiberias which is purported to house several nashim tzidkaniot. I'd like to know how it was determined that those women were buried in that place.

Answer 1

The only articles discussing this with sources that I found are here and in PDF here (both in Hebrew) - and their sources (which are similar, though not identical) begin in the 12th century, mostly by Jews who traveled the world and passed through Israel.

There seems to be no source for any of these in the Medrash, and definitely not in the Talmud.

Some of the earlier sources mentioned in those articles are:

• The Piyut "Kivrey Avot" - קברי אבות - written circa 1187 (author unknown?).
• R' Yaakov ben Nathanel HaCohen who visited the Holy Land after 1153 but before 1187.
• R' Menachem ben Peretz of Hebron who wrote about his visit there in 1215.
• R' Yaakov, the emissary of R' Yechiel of Paris - a Tosafist, describes the exact location, circa 1260.
• Benjamin of Tudela describes how in 1270 he drove past the site.

^{(Note that the Wikipedia article you point to has been flagged as a stub, has no sources (excluding a link to Tiberian hotels mentioning the site as a tourist attraction) and only exists in English, Ukranian, Russian and Tamil, but not in Hebrew.)}