Page 15 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Israel & Petra

Church of the Holy Sepulchre ❮❮ 13

Christ’s Tomb
7 At the heart of the THE HOLY FIRE
church, a marble shrine At Easter, the Greek
known as the Edicule Orthodox celebrate
encloses the place where Holy Saturday, when
Jesus’ body is believed to the Miracle of the Holy
have been laid after his Fire symbolizes the
crucifixion (left). In 2016, resurrection of Christ.
a conservation team The Patriarch leads the
lifted the covering lime- ceremony, which sees
stone slab for the first an unlit candle burst into
time in almost 500 years. flames inside Christ’s
Tomb. This miraculous
candle is then used to
light the candles of
worshippers. Holy Fire
falls on April 7 in 2018
and April 27 in 2019.
Syrian Chapel
9
Accessed through
the rear wall of the
Rotunda, this dilapidated
chapel contains Jewish
rock-cut tombs dating
from 100 BC–AD 100.
The candlelit tombs give
an impression of how
Christ’s burial place
might have looked.

Catholikon
Golgotha
5 8
Dome
Well-worn steps
lead to the Rock of Decorated with an image
Golgotha, which com- of Christ, the Catholikon
memorates the site Dome covers the central
of the crucifixion with nave of the Crusader
Stone of
glorious altars and church. The omphalos 0
glinting mosaics. It is (literally “navel”), a stone Unction
possible to touch the basin beneath the dome, This stone marks the
rock itself, situated reflects the medieval spot where Christ’s
beneath the Greek belief that this was the body was anointed and
Orthodox altar (above). center of the world. wrapped before burial.
The 12th-century stone
The Rotunda
6 was destroyed in the
fire of 1808. A smooth
The main dome, decorated with a 12-pointed
star and pierced by an oculus, rises above the limestone slab installed
Rotunda. The colonnade was rebuilt after 1808, but in 1810 marks its original
two pillars still remain from the orig inal basilica. location (above).

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