Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most sacred, ancient, important, magnificent and celebrated monument of the Christian faith.

The church of the Holy Sepulchre in the center of Jerusalem, in the old city and on the hill of Golgotha. It is build on the site where Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and rose from the dead.

Inside the church is a rocky outcropping which is the traditional place where the cross was placed.
Archaeological excavations have demonstrated that this site was outside the city but close to one of its gates and thus would have been a good location for a crucifixion. Today this chapel is controlled by the Greek Orthodox Church.

The place where Jesus Christ was crucified is named Golgotha (the place of the skull). This hill is situated inside the structure of the church. Actually, it looks like this hill is named so because of its form, the reminding of a person`s skull. Other traditions tied to this place say that this is the burial site of the first man, and is also the place where the bounding of Isaac by Abraham.
The Holy Sepulchre Church was given for safe keeping to two Moslem families, the Nusseibeh and the Joudeh families, who own the place today, and currently hold the keys to the church.
Nowadays, there is a chapel on this hill, where tradition points to the exact place where Christ`s cross was placed.

After Christ was taken down from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea buried him in a tomb that Joseph had donated. When the church was built on that spot 300 years later, the hill around the tomb was removed, so only a small structure remains, on a flat surface.