More on the Holy Sepulchre

Pulling back the present
marble slab to expose the
Crusader period slab

More excitement over the opening of the Tomb of Christ. The archeological team had only 60 hours to do it's investigation so they worked over 2 nights non-stop. What they found beneath the present marble slab was another marble slab dating to the Crusader period some 1000 years back. Pulling off this 2nd slab revealed the rock which was part of the cave tomb.

Patriarchs and religious leaders were waiting eagerly outside the Tomb to see what was inside. The original stone was probably last seen in 1550, or at least the Crusader marble slab was seen. No written records exist to say the original cave Tomb remained because the main belief was that muslim Caliph Hakim destroyed the entire Tomb in 1009. Now it seems that this was not all true. Parts of the Tomb remains ... and now it appears this included the stone bench which Christ's Body was laid. It was covered twice over by marble slabs from the Crusader and modern periods. This discovery is electric. Everyone is very excited ... though they will probably never see it. Plans are to cover it up again to preserve it from damage. However one part of the cave wall will be exposed (in glass?) for the public to see.

The beige stone is modern
and the gray on the right is
Crusader, the brown stone
below is the original
cave rock

I am sure this will draw more pilgrims to come to the Holy Land. This is probably the greatest "discovery" in Christiandom these past 500 years.

Another piece of news hitting our headlines was yesterday's rain. Yes it did rain. Though in Jerusalem it was only for half an hour. But it was quite heavy. Down in Eilat, the seaside resort at the Red Sea, the entire city was inundated. Roads were destroyed, property under water. The whole city is now closed off to the public. Amazing how a little rain can do so much damage in the Middle East. Well for one thing the countries here are never prepared for floods because it seldom if ever happens ... we're a desert region where rain falls only in a months but hardly enough too.

Anyway we;re all waiting for more news on the Holy Sepulchre, more photographs by the archeologists .... and waiting also for more rain to fall. A time of expectancy ... and Advent of sorts.