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02:39
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern …moreThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the Christian Quarter of the walled Old City of Jerusalem.
The site is venerated as Golgotha (the Hill of Calvary), where Jesus was crucified, and is said also to contain the place where Jesus was buried (the Sepulchre).
The church has been a paramount – and for many Christians the most important – pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century, as the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus.
Today it also serves as the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the building is shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for centuries. Today, the church is home to Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Anglican and Protestant Christians have no permanent presence in the church and some regard the alternative Garden Tomb, elsewhere in Jerusalem, as the true place of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection.
On the south side of the altar is a stairway climbing to Calvary (Golgotha), traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus' crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The main altar there belongs to the Greek Orthodox, which contains The Rock of Calvary (12th Station of the Cross). The rock can be seen under glass on both sides of the altar, and beneath the altar there is a hole said to be the place where the cross was raised. Due to the significance of this, it is the most visited site in the Holy Sepulchre. The Roman Catholics (Franciscans) have an altar to the side, The Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross (11th Station of the Cross). On the left of the altar, towards the Eastern Orthodox chapel, there is a statue of Mary, believed to be working wonders (the 13th Station of the Cross, where Jesus' body was removed from the cross and given to his family).
Beneath the Calvary and the two chapels there, on the main floor, there is The Chapel of Adam. According to tradition, Jesus was crucified over the place where Adam's skull was buried. The Rock of Calvary is seen cracked through a window on the altar wall, the crack traditionally being said to be caused by the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died on the cross, and being said by more critical scholars to be the result of quarrying against a natural flaw in the rock.
Just inside the entrance is The Stone of Anointing, also known as The Stone of Unction, which tradition claims to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition is only attested since the crusader era, and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.
The Rotunda is located beneath the larger of the church's two domes. In the centre of the Rotunda is the chapel called The Edicule, which contains the Holy Sepulchre itself. The Edicule has two rooms. The first one holds The Angel's Stone, a fragment of the stone believed to have sealed the tomb after Jesus' burial. The second one is the tomb itself.
Under the status quo, the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb.
The church is a UNESCO World Heritage site. less
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01:02
The Trodos mountains are characterized by one of the largest groups of churches…moreThe Trodos mountains are characterized by one of the largest groups of churches and monasteries of the former Byzantine Empire. The complex of 10 monuments included on the World Heritage List, all richly decorated with murals, provides an overview of Byzantine and post-Byzantine painting in Cyprus.
The painted churches of the Trodos region have been declared by Unesco a World heritage site.
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04:04
One of the most impressive structures of the early Christian period was the Chr…moreOne of the most impressive structures of the early Christian period was the Chrysopolitissa basilica, which survived to the middle of the seventh century, when it was ransacked during an Arab invasion. The small church of Agia Kyriaki was later built on the same spot,
Here is St Paul's Pillar - the spot where the saint is said to have been tied and lashed 40 times on orders given by the then Roman governor.
Paphos was a centre of the cult of Aphrodite and of pre-Hellenic fertility deities. Aphrodite's mythical birthplace was on this island as the rock of Aphrodite and the bath attest.
One of the loveliest churches in the Pafos area is the six-domed Byzantine church of Agia Paraskevi, in Geroskipou, east of Pafos. Most of the surviving frescoes date back to the 15th century.
Ayios Neophytos Monastery is said to have been founded by a Cypriot hermit and writer called Neophytos in the year 1159. Neophytos carved a home for himself out of the mountain rock and it is here that you will find some of the finest frescoes from the Byzantine period dating from the 12th to the 15th century.
By the harbour stands Paphos Castle, originally a Byzantine fort built to protect the harbour. It was rebuilt by the Lusignans in the 13th century, less
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