Church Of The Holy Sepulcher

The Church Of The Holy Sepulcher is more of a tourist attraction than anything else.  At least that's what it felt like when we were there.  There have been several authorities of the Latter-Day Saint Church who have also expressed this sentiment and said that they truly believe that Christ was buried in and rose from the Garden Tomb.  Most of the Christian world, however believes that this site, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, is the site of the crucifixion and resurrection.  It is very hard to envision from these pictures, and not much easier in person, but here's our best at a visual representation of the place:

The whole of the site is inside a massive church, which is not owned by any one denomination and is taken care of by a group of several denominations.  The picture above is supposed to be the Hill of Calvary.  As you can (can't!) see, it is impossible to see any kind of hill.  You do have to climb a steep set of stairs just as you enter the church to take you up to "hill level."  At the time of Christ, this site would have been outside the city walls.

 

Downstairs, you can see a rock hill through a small viewing window.

Down the hall even further (funny to me, since no one was down this way--they were all upstairs pressed in to see that decorated and covered up spot) is a larger viewing window to show that, in fact, the church encases the hill.  (Notice Chris' pants are soaked.  The church was about 35° and we were freezing, but so glad to be out of the rain!

 This stone is right inside the front doors of the church.  It is the supposed stone upon which Christ's body was prepared for burial.  I find that hard to imagine, since the first Christian church was not built here until 326 AD.  I guess verbal tradition about just exactly which stone it was could have passed down, but there is no way to know if it is or isn't.  Most of the people there were praying at/kissing/wiping water from the stone.  Much devotion was showed, but it was so hard to imagine it the place, we just couldn't feel any of that peaceful spirit that we later felt at the Garden Tomb.

This is supposed to be the tomb.  The line to get in was 2-3 hours long!  We did NOT wait in it.  I have no idea for myself what it looked like inside the structure, but our guide said it is so dark in there it's hard to see anything.  This was also in the church and it was hard to imagine a tomb in there, since you could walk all the way around it.???  It was encased in the church and underneath a huge dome.  The architecture and size of this church were truly amazing.  There are layers from many different centuries and it is truly a magnificent building, just not at all what you would imagine for the hill and tomb. 

My favorite part of this church was the huge mosaic mural right behind the stone that Christ's body was said to have been prepared on.  I had to take 3 photos of it because of the size of it and the way it was situated, I couldn't fit it all in one shot.  Here is the first, which is Christ's body being taken from the cross.  (They read left to right, so that's how the mural goes). 

The center section is of Christ's body being prepared

The final piece is of his body being taken to the tomb.  I know in the LDS Church we aren't used to this kind of art, but it truly was magnificent.  It was so beautiful and I felt like it showed a reverence for the Savior in His crucifixion.

Close up of the stones.  Each stone was about the size of my thumbnail.