SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 367 



stands the holy sepulchre ; it is enclosed in an oblong house, round- 

 ed at one end with small arcades or chapels for prayer in the ont- 

 side of it for the devotion of the Copts, the Abyssinian, the Syrian 

 Maronite, and other Christians, Who are not, like the Roman Cath- 

 olics, the Greeks, and the Armenians, provided with large chapels 

 in the body of the church. At the other end it is squared off 

 and furnished with a platform in front, which is ascended by a 

 flight of steps, having a small parapet wall of marble on each hand, 

 and being floored with the same material. In the middle of this 

 platform stand a block of polished marble, about a foot and a half 

 square ; on this stone sat the angel who announced the blessed tid- 

 ings, of the ressureotion to Mary Magdalen, and Joanna, and Mary 

 the mother of James : ' He is not here, he is risen, as he said : come, 

 see the place where the Lord lay.' Advancing a step, and taking 

 off our shoes and turbans, at the desire of the keeper, he drew aside 

 the curtain, and stepping down and bending almost to the ground, 

 we entered, by a low narrow door into this mansion of victory, 

 where Christ triumphed over the grave, and disarmed death of all 

 his terrors. 



'The tomb exhibited is a sarcophagus of white marble, slightly 

 tinged with blue ; it is six feet one inch and three quarters long, 

 three feet three quarters of an inch broad, and two feet one inch and 

 a quarter deep, measured on the outside. It is but indifferently 

 polished, and seems as if it had at one time been exposed to the 

 pelting of the storm and the changes of the season, by which it lias 

 been considerably disintegrated : it is without any ornament, and is 

 made in the fashion of a Greek sarcophagus, and not like the an- 

 cient tombs of the Jews, which we see cut in the rock for the re- 

 ception of the dead ; nor like those stone troughs, or sarcophagi, 

 which I have already mentioned were called to me the beds of the 

 Lord Jesus, of Mary, of John, and of Zacharias. There are seven 

 silver lamps constantly burning over it, the gifts of different poten- 

 tates, to illuminate this scene of hope and joy. The sarcophagus 

 occupies about one half of the sepulchral chamber, and extends 

 from one end of it to the other. A space about three feet width in 

 front of it, is all that remains for the reception of visiters, so that not 

 above three or four can be conveniently admitted at a time.' 



That the marble sarcophagus shown as the sepulchre, has no pre- 

 tensions to the distinction claimed for it, stands in no need of proo 

 The Evangelists inform us that the sepulchre in which the body of 

 Jesus was laid, was hewn out of the rock, which is not marble, but 

 compact limestone ; a lateral excavation, in all probability, of the 

 same kind as are still seen in the rocks round Jerusalem. The 

 stone in the anti-room of the tomb, shown as that which was rolled 

 to the doorway of the sepulchre, and kissed and venerated by the 

 holy fathers accordingly, was admitted by the guide, when strictly 

 questioned, to be a substitute for the real stone, which was stolen 

 by the Armenians, and is exhibited by them in a chapel on Mount 

 Zion: but the block of marble, it was said, served their purpose 



