■The 
THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AT JERUSALEM. 
569 
Holy Sepulchre is thirty paces from this stonCj ex- 
i|J '« the centre of the great dome ; it resembles a small 
hewn out of the solid rock. The entrance, which 
V *he east, is only four feet high, and two feet and a 
broad. The interior of the sepulchre is nearly 
It is six feet, wanfitvg an inch, in length, and six 
"'anting two inches, in breadth, and from the floor to 
eight feet one inch. There is a solid block of the 
which was left in excavating the other part : 
'Wo feet four inches and a half high, and occupies 
L the sepulchre, for it is .six feet, wanting one inch, in 
V and two feet and five-sixths wide. On this table 
of our Lord was laid, with the head towards the 
'■■rb ?"d the feet to the east ; but, on account of the su- 
■:.yl'‘ous devotion of the Orientals, who imagine that, if 
!ii their hair upon this stone, God will never torsake 
'>'id also, because the pilgrims broke off pieces, it has 
a covering of white marble, on which mass is now 
'scJ3'ed. Forty-four lamps are constantly burning in this 
'Tijl place, and three holes have been made in the roof 
'h 1, ^ .^'Tission of the smoke. The exterior of the se- 
is also friced with slabs of marble, and adorned with 
llw having a dome above. 
^ Holy Sepulchre is composed of three churches; 
< 1 ^ , d)e Holy Sepulchre, properly so called ; that of CaU 
111; ’ the church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross, 
jhj ’^'st is built in the valley at the foot of Calvary, on 
I where tradition reports that the body of Christ was 
■' ilig 1 his church is in the form of a cross, the chape. 
l Sepulchre constituting, in fact, the nave of the 
It is circular, like the Pantheon at Rome, and is 
dome, beneath which is the sepulchre. Six- 
tiiij ‘garble columns adorn the circumference of this ro- 
>■' "Pb '** *^ connected by seventeen arches, and support 
gallery, likewise composed of sixteen columns 
1? arches, of smaller dimensions than those ot 
fsnge. Niches corresponding with the arches ap- 
the frieze of the second gallery, and the dome 
li W '^9® the arch of these niches. 
of the church of the Holy Sepulchre is of 
*ts jj'ltt'ty. The author of the Epitome of the Holy 
^tts, that forty-six years after the destruct5||n of 
Bb3 
