Jesus’ tomb reopened in Jerusalem’s after a nine-month restoration

Jerusalem: Jesus’ tomb is officially reopened at a ceremony in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday after a nine-month and $4 million restoration, a foreign news agency reported.

The chamber, thought to be where Jesus’ body was placed after his crucifixion, was last rebuilt in 1810, according to a foreign news agency. The project was carried out by a group of 50 specialists from the National Technical University of Athens, who worked at night so that the work would not prevent people from visiting the tomb, the paper reports.

“If the intervention hadn’t happened now, there is a very great risk that there could have been a collapse,” Bonnie Burnham from the World Monuments Fund told a foreign news agency.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is the leader of Orthodox Christians, attended the ceremony.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre covers the site, which is visited by people from around the world. The tomb is considered the holiest place in the Christian faith.

Experts from the National Technical University of Athens removed the marble cladding, and found a cross carved onto another marble slab. Beneath that, they also discovered a limestone slab which the experts believe had not been seen since the 1500s and could have been made from the wall of the cave that served as Jesus’ final resting place.

As many as 5000 pilgrims a day visit the church, many walking along the Via Dolorosa, a path through Jerusalem’s old city where Jesus bore his cross on his way to Calvary.

Courtesy: The Guardian