Jesus’s Tomb Opened For First Time In Centuries (See Wow Photo)

Preservation experts have opened for the first time
in at least two centuries what Christians believe is
Jesus’s tomb inside the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Some of the historic work was witnessed by AFP
photographer Gali Tibbon who captured images of
the site believed to contain the rock upon which
Jesus was laid in around 33 AD as it was uncovered
as part of ongoing restoration at the site.
A marble slab covering the site, among the holiest in
Christianity, was pulled back for three days as part
of both restoration work and archaeological analysis,
experts on the scene told AFP.
It was the first time the marble had been removed
since at least 1810, when the last restoration work
took place following a fire, and possibly earlier, said
Father Samuel Aghoyan, the church’s Armenian
superior.
A painting of Jesus can be seen in the narrow area
above where the marble slab was removed.
Debris and material was found beneath the marble
and was being further studied, Aghoyan said.
“It is moving in a sense, something we’ve been
talking about so many centuries,” Aghoyan told AFP.
National Geographic has been documenting the
restoration work which is being carried out by a
team of Greek specialists.
It reported that “the exposure of the burial bed is
giving researchers an unprecedented opportunity to
study the original surface of what is considered the
most sacred site in Christianity”.
– Major restoration project –
“My knees are shaking a little bit,” Fred Hiebert, an
archaeologist-in-residence at the National
Geographic Society, said in a video on the
magazine’s website during the work at the shrine.
A shrine was built in the 19th century over the site
of the cave where Jesus is believed to have been
buried before his resurrection, and it is visited by
throngs of tourists and pilgrims each day.
Earlier this year, a major restoration project began
on the site, surrounded by a structure called an
edicule and located at the centre of the church in
Jerusalem’s Old City, underneath its dome.
The project required the agreement of the various
Christian denominations that share the church,
which also contains the area where Jesus is
believed to have been crucified and his body
anointed.
The restoration project is expected to be completed
around March 2017, in time for Easter, and the site
has remained open to visitors for nearly the entire
time, although the ornate edicule has been
surrounded by scaffolding.
Its marble slabs have weakened over the years,
caused in part by the thousands of people who visit
daily.
The shrine is being painstakingly dismantled and
rebuilt, the Custody of the Holy Land, which
oversees Roman Catholic properties in the area, has
said previously.
Broken or fragile parts are to be replaced while
marble slabs that can be preserved will be cleaned,
and the structure supporting them will be reinforced.
The work is being funded by the three main Christian
denominations of the Holy Sepulchre — Greek
Orthodox, Franciscans and Armenians — and by
public and private contributions.

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