According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was crucified outside
the walls of the city of Jerusalem (in about 33 AD/CE) at a quarry called
Golgathia. His body was taken down by his disciples, washed, and buried in
a nearby cave. According to Christian tradition, three days later his body
was gone from the cave, and he was resurrected. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
is the considered by many historical and Christian traditions to be the
site of the crucifixion, washing, and burial. It is at the end of the Via
Dolorosa, where he walked to his execution carrying his cross.
There is a controversy behind this site. The first thing you might notice is that the gospel says Jesus was buried outside the walls of the city, yet the church is deep within the Old City of Jerusalem. This is deceiving; archaelogical evidence makes it clear that during Roman times, the city was much smaller and did not extend as far as the site of Golgathia, which was a quarry and was a place where criminals were crucified.
However, the site remained in obscurity until the third century AD/CE, when Emperor Constantine's mother St. Helena traveled to Palestine to identify various Christian sites. Her selection was, it seems, somewhat arbitrary and sometimes not based on historical fact. However, it does seem a likely site, and it has been accepted as the site by many major sects of Christianity - Catholicism, Armenian, Orthodox - but not most Protestants. (In the last few years historians have proposed a second site, a garden outside the Old City)
The church itself is not officially under any sect's jurisdiction - the Franciscans have their section of it and the Orthodox have their section, and there's generally a lot of in-fighting between them whenever something administrative needs to get done. Every night the church is locked by a set of keys owned by a local Muslim Arab family that has been the custodians of the keys for six centuries.
There are numerous other places of note in the church, other than the tomb of Jesus and the site of the crucifixion. There is the rock where his body was supposively washed, the site of the burial of Adam (the first man), the site that medieval Christian scholars thought was the center of the world, and the basement where St. Helena found the true cross.
Today, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
There is a controversy behind this site. The first thing you might notice is that the gospel says Jesus was buried outside the walls of the city, yet the church is deep within the Old City of Jerusalem. This is deceiving; archaelogical evidence makes it clear that during Roman times, the city was much smaller and did not extend as far as the site of Golgathia, which was a quarry and was a place where criminals were crucified.
However, the site remained in obscurity until the third century AD/CE, when Emperor Constantine's mother St. Helena traveled to Palestine to identify various Christian sites. Her selection was, it seems, somewhat arbitrary and sometimes not based on historical fact. However, it does seem a likely site, and it has been accepted as the site by many major sects of Christianity - Catholicism, Armenian, Orthodox - but not most Protestants. (In the last few years historians have proposed a second site, a garden outside the Old City)
The church itself is not officially under any sect's jurisdiction - the Franciscans have their section of it and the Orthodox have their section, and there's generally a lot of in-fighting between them whenever something administrative needs to get done. Every night the church is locked by a set of keys owned by a local Muslim Arab family that has been the custodians of the keys for six centuries.
There are numerous other places of note in the church, other than the tomb of Jesus and the site of the crucifixion. There is the rock where his body was supposively washed, the site of the burial of Adam (the first man), the site that medieval Christian scholars thought was the center of the world, and the basement where St. Helena found the true cross.
Today, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
The Entrance
She's either a nun or a Christian Arab, walking to the church.
The end of the Via Dolorosa, leading to the church
The front entrance, built by the Crusaders
The big wooden doors at the entrance to the church
When you walk in the front doors, there's a three panel mosiac mural on the wall.
This is the first panel, which shows Jesus's family and followers taking him down
from the cross.
The second panel of the mural, showing Jesus's body being cleaned
The final panel of the mural, which shows Jesus's burial (which is about twenty feet away from this)
The Site Where Jesus' Body was Washed
The stone where Jesus' body was washed, according to Christian belief
Two nuns at the stone where Jesus' body was washed.
Candles marking the center of the Christian world
The Site of the Crucifixion
The stairway leading up to the site of the crucifixion
The entrance to the location of the crucifixion
Some of the bedrock (behind glass) next to the site where the cross went in the stone
The site where Jesus was crucified. I'm assuming all this stuff
wasn't here at the time.
A close-up of the Jesus flat statue above the site where he was crucified.
Under the alter, you can put your hand into this hole and touch
the indentation in the stone where the cross went into the bedrock.
This is the intentation where theoretically the cross went into the stone
(view from above)
A pilgrim in prayer before the site where Jesus was crucified
Me inserting a cross to be blessed for a friend in the indentation where Jesus' cross went in the ground
A woman before the statue of Mary next to the crucifixion site
The Tomb of Adam
According to Christian tradition, this is the burial site of Adam, the first man.
(Directly below the site of the crucifixtion)
The Tomb of Jesus
The outer entrance to the tomb. Stupid lighting.
The roof of the giant tomb structure
I think this is a footprint of someone (not Jesus)
(outside the inner chamber of the tomb of Jesus)
A priest cleaning the wax off the protective case of the stone with a footprint
The beautiful entrance to the tomb of Jesus - I believe this only dates to the 1900s
The same two nuns pray at the tomb of Jesus
The tomb of Jesus (not the original structure, obviously)
The ceiling of the tomb of Jesus
Another view of the ceiling
The prayer beads I had blessed on the tomb of Jesus for a friend
Another view of the rosary beads and the tomb
Decorations inside the tomb
An altar around the back of the tomb of Jesus
The Basement
A staircase leading into the murky basement
In the basement, there is this Armenian mosiac on the ground
A close-up of the ark of Noah in the mosiac. Mount Ararat (where Noah's ark landed after the flood)
is in Armenia so they're big on that imagery
The site in the basement where St. Helena found the True Cross in the 3rd century AD
(sorry about the lighting)
Miscellaneous Places
She's either a nun or a Christian Arab, walking to the church.
The end of the Via Dolorosa, leading to the church
The front entrance, built by the Crusaders
The big wooden doors at the entrance to the church
When you walk in the front doors, there's a three panel mosiac mural on the wall.
This is the first panel, which shows Jesus's family and followers taking him down
from the cross.
The second panel of the mural, showing Jesus's body being cleaned
The final panel of the mural, which shows Jesus's burial (which is about twenty feet away from this)
The Site Where Jesus' Body was Washed
The stone where Jesus' body was washed, according to Christian belief
Two nuns at the stone where Jesus' body was washed.
Candles marking the center of the Christian world
The Site of the Crucifixion
The stairway leading up to the site of the crucifixion
The entrance to the location of the crucifixion
Some of the bedrock (behind glass) next to the site where the cross went in the stone
The site where Jesus was crucified. I'm assuming all this stuff
wasn't here at the time.
A close-up of the Jesus flat statue above the site where he was crucified.
Under the alter, you can put your hand into this hole and touch
the indentation in the stone where the cross went into the bedrock.
This is the intentation where theoretically the cross went into the stone
(view from above)
A pilgrim in prayer before the site where Jesus was crucified
Me inserting a cross to be blessed for a friend in the indentation where Jesus' cross went in the ground
A woman before the statue of Mary next to the crucifixion site
The Tomb of Adam
According to Christian tradition, this is the burial site of Adam, the first man.
(Directly below the site of the crucifixtion)
The Tomb of Jesus
There are a couple things you should know about the tomb
before examing it. First, obviously, there is no body there, so it is not
a true tomb. According to Christian tradition of course, he was resurrected
and so the body was gone after three days. But when the site was dug up to
make the church in the fourth century, there were no remains there.
Second, this tomb structure is not the the original. Archaeological surveys were done in the last few years that discovered some 11 structures present, one built atop another. I believe the current facade is less than a century old. They were built all the way into the bedrock, so nothing of the original cave remains.
Second, this tomb structure is not the the original. Archaeological surveys were done in the last few years that discovered some 11 structures present, one built atop another. I believe the current facade is less than a century old. They were built all the way into the bedrock, so nothing of the original cave remains.
The outer entrance to the tomb. Stupid lighting.
The roof of the giant tomb structure
I think this is a footprint of someone (not Jesus)
(outside the inner chamber of the tomb of Jesus)
A priest cleaning the wax off the protective case of the stone with a footprint
The beautiful entrance to the tomb of Jesus - I believe this only dates to the 1900s
The same two nuns pray at the tomb of Jesus
The tomb of Jesus (not the original structure, obviously)
The ceiling of the tomb of Jesus
Another view of the ceiling
The prayer beads I had blessed on the tomb of Jesus for a friend
Another view of the rosary beads and the tomb
Decorations inside the tomb
An altar around the back of the tomb of Jesus
The Basement
A staircase leading into the murky basement
In the basement, there is this Armenian mosiac on the ground
A close-up of the ark of Noah in the mosiac. Mount Ararat (where Noah's ark landed after the flood)
is in Armenia so they're big on that imagery
The site in the basement where St. Helena found the True Cross in the 3rd century AD
(sorry about the lighting)
Miscellaneous Places
Confession booths
Some pilgrims carved these crosses into the stone walls as graffitti
Graffitti, some dating back to 1690 apparently
Graffitti carved into the stone near the site of the crucifixion
Graffitti from 1912
Some graffitti in what I believe is modern Greek
The main sanctuary, poorly-lit like everything else
The ceiling of the church. I apologize for the lighting of the photograph.
This is an altar, but I'm not sure for what.
Leaving the church