Church of the Holy Sepulchre

About Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church in Jerusalem, containing the two holiest sites in Christianity

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is the holiest site in Christianity. It stands in the Christian Quarter inside the walls of the Old City of Al-Quds, built over Golgotha, the rock where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, and over the tomb in which he was buried and rose again. Pilgrims have come here since the fourth century. The first church was built under Constantine the Great in the fourth century. It was destroyed in 1009 under the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, rebuilt with his son's permission by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX (completed in 1048), and enlarged by the Crusaders, so that the present building is bigger than the original. The major Christian communities, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian and others, share custody of its parts under the Status Quo arrangement in force since 1757, and the building is the seat of three patriarchates at once. It is not a single hall but a cluster of churches and chapels under one roof. Just inside the entrance is the Stone of Unction, where Jesus' body is said to have been prepared for burial; to the right a steep, narrow stair climbs to Golgotha; below, a long flight of steps descends to the Chapel of the Finding of the Cross, its walls carved with thousands of small crosses by Crusader-era pilgrims; and under the great Rotunda stands the Sepulchre itself, where visitors queue to enter the tomb. There are also Armenian, Coptic, Syriac and Ethiopian chapels, the Ethiopians keeping a monastery on the roof.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine