Day 4: Church of the Holy Sepulchre...

Next we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a very holy pilgrimage site which claims to be where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The church is actually divided into separate sections for the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Armenians. It was rebuilt in the 12th century after the original 4th century church was destroyed. Under the lamps is where his body was thought to be prepared for burial. Even though this particular stone was added in 1810, that didn’t stop people from kissing it. We went upstairs to see the spot of the crucifixion, which is in the most elaborate part of the church with a lot of gold and silver icons, providing people another spot to kiss. It was strange witnessing a priest shove some folks aside as he prepared for a short ceremony.

It was also strange seeing several people crawling on their knees around the Tomb of Christ (the sepulchre).  

We opted not to wait in the long line to enter the tomb, but did go in a small cave that would have contained a family grave from around the same time.