The traditional place of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection, enclosed since Constantine (from AD 326) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Excavation has shown the site was a disused limestone quarry with rock-cut tombs, just outside the city wall of Jesus's day — exactly the kind of setting the Gospels describe — and it has been venerated continuously since the fourth century. (The Garden Tomb is a nineteenth-century alternative, not the ancient tradition.)
- Where it is
- Christian Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem
- Scripture
- John 19:17-18 · Matthew 28:6
What the evidence confirmsThe church stands on a genuine first-century quarry-and-tomb area that lay outside the contemporary wall, matching the Gospel description, and the veneration is documented from the fourth century.
What it does not proveNo inscription proves this exact tomb was Jesus's; the identification is very early and strong tradition rather than something archaeology can settle.
Sources & further reading