Ground Zero for so many Religions

Very Special Place.

The 900 year old church "The Holy Sepulchre" houses the place where Jesus was crucified and buried, this is the location of the last 3 stations of the cross. To my surprise within this building there are 3 governing bodies, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox and the Catholics.   The Eqyptian Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syrian Orthodox also possess certain rights and certain properties within the church.  The rights and priviledges of all of these communities are protected by the Status Quo of the Holy Places (1852) what this means is that they all have an area within the church that is theirs and that they take care of, if they dont take care of it no other body is allowed to step in to help.

What I found so interesting is that its the Muslims who hold the key to this church and have done since the 12th century and it is passed down thru generations, of course they dont use the church but they will not give up the responsibility that they have been given all the same, interesting hey.  Christians from different denomonations fought over who should keep the key to the church, and the Arab conqueror "Saladin"decided to entrust this 10" key to a muslim family to stop the fighting and to this day this family still opens the church at dawn and goes again to close it at 8pm every night.

This is the location where Jesus was buried, this tomb is inside the Holy Sepulcher. 

This is the location where it is said that after Jesus was taken down from the Cross he was laid on this stone and washed and wrapped before his burial.  I have to tell you, words cannot describe the emotion of being here, for me it was intense, I so wanted to kneel down beside it and kiss it but was too afraid, until i heard a voice say, "be not afraid",  so I did.  What was I afraid of, there was an intense feeling when i was here that i was in the presence of something beyond description I can only describe it as "Love", truly overwhelming for me.

 Amazing mosaic's of the story of the death of Jesus from dying on the cross, being taken down from the cross, then laid to be washed and wrapped then buried, that was stations 12,13,14.  Stations 3 and 4 were tough also, Jesus falls with the cross and Jesus meets his mother, brutal on the heart.  To walk the 14 stations of the cross down the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem is a tough walk.