The Tomb of Christ

The Tomb of Christ stands in the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, strapped together by steel girders put there by the British in 1947 to prevent it from collapsing. In 1986 Martin Biddle undertook the recording of the tomb before urgently-needed restoration. This book uses the results of that investigation to make an exploration of the site, its appearance, and the destructions and rebuilding of the tomb throughout its 2000-year history. Throughout its history, the tomb has been drawn, painted, engraved, photographed, shown in mosaics, modeled in wood, stone, glass and precious metals and copied full-size in churches throughout Europe. This study brings together this evidence and the archaeological recording in three dimensions, including photogrammetric survey to reveal the form and appearance of the tomb through its successive changes.