Garden Tomb

About Garden Tomb

Antique tomb in Jerusalem, considered by some to be the tomb of Jesus

The Garden Tomb is a Christian pilgrimage site just outside the walls of the Old City of Al-Quds, a block north of Damascus Gate (Bab al-Amud). It consists of an ancient rock-cut tomb set in a planted garden, which some Protestants, Evangelicals in particular, regard as the empty tomb from which Jesus rose. This differs from the older tradition that places the crucifixion, burial and resurrection at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, about 600 metres to the south. The garden adjoins a rocky outcrop known as Skull Hill. In the mid-nineteenth century some Christian scholars proposed that this was Golgotha, a view popularised by the British general Charles Gordon. The tomb itself was discovered in 1867, and excavations around it revealed the remains of a cistern system and a winepress, evidence that the site was once a garden. Archaeologists such as Riccardo Lufrani, however, date the tomb to the Hellenistic period, the fourth to second centuries BCE. The association that runs the site makes no claim that this is the actual tomb of Jesus; it presents the place as a visual aid for understanding the biblical descriptions of Golgotha and the empty tomb. Whatever one thinks of its authenticity, the garden is a peaceful spot visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine