In Search of The Real Tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem

deep in the heart of the Holy Land lies the ancient city of Jerusalem the city is sacred to many of the world's major religions and its boundaries and icons have been fought over for thousands of years Muslims Christians and Jews all claim control of various areas and even today the battles continue to rage for Christians the Church of the holy Seiler is the most venerated site built by the Roman emperor Constantine in 325 ad it is said to cover the spot where Jesus was crucified and buried inside the church is a chapel known as the edicule which according to tradition houses The Rock Cut tomb where Christ lay before his resurrection for many pilgrims who visit the site it is a symbolic place of worship and respect but others believe that it is the actual spot where Christ's body rested even though Constantine built his church there 300 years after the [Music] crucifixion yet despite the church's importance no one has actually investigated What Lies Beneath the ancient edicule the secrets beneath the stones have been hidden for thousands of years until now in an unprecedented gesture the four religious sects that share ownership of the church the Greek Orthodox Roman Catholic Armenian and Coptic have agreed to allow a husband and wife archaeological team to conduct the first ever major survey of the [Music] edicule Martin and Bertha Biddle hope their work will help answer one of the great questions in the history of Christianity using endoscopes computers historical records and state-of-the-art heat sensitive cameras they hope to discover exactly what lies within the outer walls of the chapel and perhaps begin to discern whether the edicule actually protects the real tomb of Christ almost everything that is known about Jesus comes from the Gospels the ancient writings of his disciples according to these Chronicles in the year 30 or 33 ad the last hours of Christ's life were played out here in the ancient city of Jerusalem this is where he was said to have been crucified buried and [Music] resurrected the gospels say that Jesus was taken out of the city to golgatha meaning place of the skull there he was nailed to the cross and 6 hours later his lifeless body was carried to a rock cut tomb in a Garden nearby he was crucified in what was an abandoned Quarry and later in the afternoon because the bodies have to be off The Cross by sunset according to Jewish law Joseph of arthea and a friend took him down and laid him in a rock cut tomb the disciples simply used the nearest tomb they could quickly get together a shroud and they simply put him on the Rock bench in the Tomb on Sunday morning the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and other women came to the tomb to provide the normal burial rights for Jesus there had been no time on the Friday the afternoon but she and the others found the tomb empty and that's why the empty tomb has become the physical symbol of Resurrection faith that is why it has become immortalized as fundamental to the goal of the pilgrim Christians have been searching for the sight of Christ's tomb for thousands of years and in recent times there have been claims that it lies as far away as the Pines or even India most serious academics agree that it is definitely somewhere in Jerusalem but much controversy remains about its exact location those who favor the Church of the Holy Seiler as the site base their belief on the findings of the emperor Constantine the first Christian leader of Rome in 325 ad he brought his forces to Jerusalem to erect churches on important Christian [Music] sites Excavating near a rock that was reported to be golgatha Constantine's men uncovered several Rock Cut tombs and found something that immediately LED Constantine to hail one as the tomb of Christ a small Chapel was built around it and above that the Church of the Holy Seiler meaning holy tomb was constructed [Music] in the 17th century since Constantine built that first original structure the chapel has been damaged many times by fires earthquakes and more each time it was rebuilt but many believe that at some point or another the original Rock Cut tomb that it protects must also have been destroyed the current Chapel the edicule which only dates back to the early 19th century appears to be all that has survived at least that is what was thought until professor of archaeology Martin bid and his wife Bertha arrived on the scene 11 years ago the two were asked to do a survey of the present structure which itself had been damaged by an earthquake in 1927 we were phoned up out of the blue and asked whether we would be into interested in studying the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy seer in Jerusalem the reason for this was the structure built around the tomb called the edu the little house had not been restored as had all the rest of the church and clearly at some states it would have to be restored this would be an extraordinary opportunity for the biddles they would be the first to seriously investigate the place where Christ was said to have been buried what we hadn't realized was how very little studied the building was I had anyway thought that it would be the most studied structure in Christendom and was amazed that he wasn't the edicule the building around the tomb of Christ the most important place in Christianity has actually been ignored [Music] I suppose we started off thinking as most other people had that outside at any rate it dated entirely from 189 to 1810 when it was restored we were fairly suspicious about it what we set out to do was to make very careful Stone by Stone Records in our notebooks describing every part and aspect of the structure so that we could Define what was absolutely simple and normal and then suddenly we might come across a stone or a stone joint or a projection of ston work that simply didn't follow this normal plan and that started raising questions in our minds and it was we we got to those questions within about 48 Hours of studying the [Music] outside their finds raised interesting questions about the current structure but were not completely [Music] unexpected they knew from previous research that there had been other structures on the same site so they figured they were just discovering a few forgotten [Music] remnants by looking at written histories of the building uh by looking at the extraordinary range of depictions that exist of the various edues we were able to deduce that altogether there had been four successive edulesco of the Tomb in 3 25 326 the biddles continued to find more and more protruding pieces of the earlier ules the same cut happening there that's amazing they began to wonder if the current structure had been built around the older ones instead of replacing them as was previously thought the actual entrance here into the uh tomb chamber this is all 189 to 10 there's no doubt about this there are these marble slabs so we know that this marble and this marble and undoubtedly the marble on this side as well belong to a period earlier than the Reconstruction of 189 to10 and then we have another Marble Arch here actually leading into the tomb chamber but I mean this one here must at least have been the arch that was in position before 189 to 10 so it's at least 1550 at least this extraordinary Marvel insert but if the previous ules really did remain inside the most recent one it would mean that each successive structure had to have been big enough to Encompass those that were built before it to find out if this was even possible the bidel brought in a consultant to carry out a 3D photog gometric survey of the [Music] Ule [Music] we took just under 200 photographs in all of the edle and these were in Stereo pairs whereby we were looking at the same object from slightly different camera positions what we have to try and do is is recreate the positions of our cameras within our computer model once we have these accurately positioned we can then start taking measur ments from each of the photographs this gives us the ability viewing these in 3D therefore been able to take three-dimensional measurements from them the results of this are a highly accurate model that is accurate to a few millimeters once littleworth had finished the model of the 19th century edicule he used Dimensions gathered from original plans and drawings to create scaled 3D images of each of the earlier chapels from the 4th Century the 11th century and finally the 16th [Music] century the point of uh creating models of the previous structures was to see how they they fitted within the present structure once we superimposed them um we found that the 11th century fitted over the 4th Century structure the 16th fitted over the 11th century structure and finally the present Ule fitted over the 16th century [Music] structure this was an exciting Revelation for the bid if the earlier structures that had been built over the tomb were still there then there was a chance that the tomb itself was too Constantine had seen it in the 4th century and there were also so later detailed accounts of what it looked [Music] like of course people always wonder whether there's anything the original Rock Cut tomb left well there's a really remarkable chain of evidence that suggest that there is it begins with the fact that Constantine edicule was specifically constructed to protect the remains of the Rock Cut tomb which he found it was seen Again by bonifest of reguster in 1555 and he left us a very formal account in Latin of what he'd seen there open to our own eyes was the Tomb of the Lord cut into the Rock sanctis Domin sepulcrum in Petra exm the Tomb of the Lord cut in the Rock and quite specific statement of what he'd actually seen when he' taken down the medieval edicule in order to rebuild it he saw the Rock Cut tomb or what remained of it inside the structure the biddle's archaeological survey 3D mapping and careful historical research had turned up a potential breakthrough they now have reason to believe that the tomb found by Constantine and long thought to have been destroyed may still remain beneath the present day [Music] edicule but even if the tomb does still exist is there any way to determine whether it had actually been Christ's the biddle's first step is to find out exactly what a tomb from that era would have looked like the henan valley lies just outside the old city walls of Jerusalem this is the place where Judas es scariot was thought to have committed suicide after he betrayed Jesus the valley is full of old Limestone [Music] quaries among which are dozens of ancient tombs the bidd have come here with Dan bahat an expert on Jewish burial Customs to see if these tombs can offer clues about the burial of Jesus fantastic imagine when it was not you mean all is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of anuus is perched on the side of the valley beneath it are many ancient tombs and although none are candidates for the actual tomb of Christ they are from the same period and can show what Christ tomb probably looked like look that oh that's a big one is it with with a d ceiling to it as well yes what sort of date is this Danny it's pretty Grand I think it will be last days of the second temple period namely the last quarter of the first century in the time of Christ when somebody will die body will be bleed by anointing him with oil scraping the oil exactly as it was done in the Roman period altoe then will be put all kind of perfumes of course to keep the body clean and then wrapped with shrouds the body will be laid on the ledge and then it will finally after a year it will have the shape as we see the skeleton [Music] here the outer Chambers contain the bodies of early monks who lived and died in these caves several centuries after the time of chist [Music] Christ they give a graphic illustration of how people were laid to rest in Rock Cut tombs but these platforms are larger than christs which the gospels say had a single bench only big enough for one body further inside the complex Dan shows the bidel a more accurate example that really does give you the feel of a small rock cut tomb and and and bench to the bench and bench to the right exactly as theala itself when one's actually in the Tomb chamber in the Church of the Holy sea that is what however eroded and broken is covered by the marble slabs and by the burial St so that's what that really is a a shelf a rock cut shelf in a rock cut [Music] tomb with a clear picture of what tombs from Christ's time looked like and growing evidence that a rock cut tomb may still exist within the Church of the Holy Seiler the bidd turned to the biggest mystery of all how did Constantine really know that the tomb over which he built his Chapel was the actual tomb where Christ was [Music] buried Jerusalem has been called the city of the Dead in and around its ancient walls lie thousands of tombs dating back many centuries amidst the multitude of anonymous tombs how is it possible for Constantine to determine exactly which one belonged to Jesus 300 years after the crucifixion were there any special features that helped him identify it the most direct historical descriptions of Christ's burial are found in the gospels they tell that Jesus was crucified on a Friday outside the city walls in a rocky area called golgatha the place of the [Music] skull by applying the gospels to Old plans and excavations under the city archaeologists have pieced together details of the roote Christ probably took to his death eventually he would have come to a gate we don't know how long that walk took it's an angle gate he would have had to struggle through two right hand turns before he came out into the open and then he would have been just on the edge the Eastern edge of a quarry and there just below the walls on a little Hill which had been eroded into two eyes so that it looked like a skull there he would have been [Music] crucified the gospels tell that as Jesus hung from the cross the skies grew dark and he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me he is said to have suffered for 6 hours before finally uttering his last words it is finished at about 3:00 in the afternoon he died and was taken down from the cross rushing to beat the Sabbath two disciples carried him away and prepared his body for burial he was sprinkled with dry spices and wrapped in a linen cloth then he was laid to rest in a rock cut tomb close to the sight of the crucifixion the Salient points for the biddle's investigation are that Jesus was crucified outside the city City walls in a rocky area beneath a skull-shaped stone and that he was buried in a rock cut tomb within a Garden close by the Church of the Holy Seiler is traditionally seen as fitting this description because it is thought to contain not only a tomb but also a rock that marks the spot where golgatha once was this is the traditional site of golgatha behind the facade of the Holy Seer here behind the great B glass window as you come West from the site of golgatha left of the entrance to the church behind the great Bell Tower here under the runder is the site of the Rock Cut tomb covered uh by the edicule today this altar is said to cover the actual rock of golgatha and stands 39 yards from the edicule under which Christ's tomb is thought to be for those who believe this is the actual place where Christ was crucified it is a Most Holy sight for [Music] worship but many believe that Constantine picked the wrong spot when he built the Church of the Holy Seiler and that Christ's actual tomb lies elsewhere in Jerusalem some have thought it is at this spot known as the garden tomb in many ways the garden tomb seems to match the words of the gospels exactly it lies in a garden close to a cliff face that looks like a skull and it also fits the gospels in one way that the holy Seiler does not it lies outside the city walls every year the garden tomb attracts thousands of pilgrims who come here to honor the place where Christ was crucified and buried for many people a visit to the holy Seer is the thing that they really want to do if they believe that that is the actual place where Jesus was buried and rose again but for many of our visitors particularly those who come from the United States North America Europe culturally they don't feel quite so much at home and not used to all the Orthodox architecture and uh lants and the all the incense it's not what they're used to in terms of when they go to church they're not necessarily so comfortable there and they feel much more comfortable here at the Garden there is a sense of an oasis an oasis of peace and calm people find they can sit perhaps read their new testament read the story of the crucifixion and the resurrection and to remind themselves that they could indeed be sitting in the actual place where this all happened he said do this as often as he do it he show forth my death what talking about past and future yes sir that till I come again how many of you believe he's coming back you believe the garden tomb was discovered by General Gordon of carum in the 19th century he made his Discovery after finding a rock formation that matched the gospel's description of golgatha Gordon had questioned the authenticity of the Tomb beneath the Church of the Holy Seiler because of its location inside Jerusalem he was looking for a sight outside the city walls he was a student of the Bible studying what the Bible was actually saying about the places and came to look at the where the bus station now stands outside our garden and he became increasingly convinced that that was in fact gtha that area out there was known as skull hill before the time of Gordon and therefore he and others were looking all around this area for a tomb that fitted the details of the New Testament about the Tomb of Jesus and just remember that the person who took down the body of Jesus from the cross was a rich man Joseph of ARA and he had this tomb nearby has to be a Jewish tomb and some of our visitors who come here and say you know but Jesus surely was a Christian tomb Jesus of course lived and died and was buried as a Jew and buried in a Jewish tomb so a rich man's Jewish tomb from the time of Jesus in a garden setting a tomb in fact which could have been sealed by a rolling stone you can imagine a very large Stone being placed here in the groove and then rolled across to seal the entrance to the tomb so it does fit all the details of the Bible about the Tomb of Jesus inside evidence that this was the right tomb appeared even stronger first of all one of the features we've got here is the pillow that there where the head could have rested and a place cut out of the rock down there for the feet but we've also got a second tomb over here and the interesting thing is that this one although it's got a place for the head there's no place cut for the feet and Jesus you remember was buried in a new Tomb a tomb wherein man had not yet laay one of the features in those days was that they although they constructed the tomb they only cut the place for the feet when they saw the size of the person to be buried therefore we know that this one has been used placed for the head plac for the feet whereas this one may not have been used at that stage so having it all fitting together a rich man's Jewish tomb in a garden setting so close to a possible crucifixion side I think you can see why people felt that this could indeed be the actual Tomb of Jesus as con ining as the case for the garden tomb might seem most archaeologists now doubt its authenticity they believe that many of the physical characteristics of the Tomb are not consistent with the period when Jesus was buried the garden tomb is a very lovely place and many people appreciate the difficulty is that the features of the Tomb simply don't fit with the Tomb of the period of Jesus in the first century ad archaeologists who studied the Jewish tomb in Jerusalem believes it belongs to a period perhaps seven or8 centuries earlier and the groove outside it which is pointed out as a Groove for a rolling stone is unlike any other Rolling Stone Groove in Jerusalem it's probably in fact a crusader water channel so despite the many similarities it would seem that the garden tomb could not have been the place where Christ was buried but it still had one important characteristic that the Church of the Holy Seiler did not its location anym not it would have to be outside the city wall and once Jesus had been sentenced to death he as you know carried his cross outside the city wall to the place in Aramaic called golgatha the place of the skull and that would have been an open space where a lot of people could have seen the crucifixion just to remind you that crucifixion was a deterrent form of punishment they wanted robbers Mal factors to see what was going on and learn the appropriate lesson so it was an open place probably by the roadside we know for sure that this area here was outside the city wall the holy Seer may not have been this one factor casts a long Shadow over the theory that Christ's tomb Lies Beneath the edicule in the church had Constantine been mistaken when he chose that site the location of the Church of the Holy C has caused people a lot of worry because the gospel say he was taken out taken out of the city in other words to the place of crucifixion but of course as you can see the great Dome covering the tomb of Christ and the place of golgatha the crucifixion just to the right of it are very obviously completely inside the city today but perhaps that was not the case when Christ was alive it is the city which has moved it's possible to look down on the city and see where the walls lay at the time of Jesus you can see today that the roofs of the building on the right are higher and the roofs of the building on the left are lower and that difference between the high roofs to the right of buildings inside the line of the wall and low roofs to the left of buildings outside the line of the city wall give us the line of the north wall of the city as it was in the time of Jesus and it was only with the extension of the city walls to the west and to the north about 10 years only after the time of the crucifixion that the traditional site was brought within the city which is why the Church of the Holy Seer is within the walls of the city today so at the time Christ was buried the spot where the church would later be built was actually outside the city it was not until 41 ad that Jerusalem expanded to where the walls now stand so what initially looked like a contradiction can be explained by the growth of the city further supporting the theory that the Church of the Holy Seiler was built over Christ's actual [Music] tomb but the biddles believe they can find even more substantial evidence they know that Christ was buried as a Jew so they are looking for an indication that the tomb beneath the church was a Jewish one archaeologists know that ancient Jewish tombs were were often cut into the sides of former quaries and the gospels themselves mention Jesus was crucified on the Eastern edge of a [Music] quarry if there is evidence of a quarry beneath the Church of the Holy Seiler it would be one more sign that the tomb could have been Christ's John Seligman of the Israeli Antiquities Authority has studied the church in detail he has found clear evidence that it was in fact built above an ancient [Music] Quarry now we're standing within a quarry is very clearly shown by the top of a marks that we can see on the ceiling the ceiling shows where the stones have been removed from the Quarry leaving these marks of the block sizes that will cut from The Quarry itself and the walls of the Church of the Holy sepa are built within the Quarry within the Quarry marks so therefore the building has to be after the Quarry has been actually exhausted the quaran Sy system was to cut a channel around the stone and then with a diagonal cut to then place a wedge a metal wedge behind then hit it with a hammer and the stone would then come away that was the system of coring that we know to have been used during the fth century from other sites so there is therefore a possibility that this uh Quarry is either from the first century the time of Jesus or A little bit time before that which of course is the right chronological relationship we're looking for not only is the chronology of the Quarry right there are also some remarkable first century tombs within the catacombs the most important of these lies deep inside oral tradition has it that Joseph of arthea was buried here Joseph is said to have supplied the tomb for Jesus and his grave lies only yards from the edicule we're now within the Tom traditionally tributed Joseph AA which is in the back part of the Holy Seiler about 15 M from the tomb of Christ now this tomb is a typical Tomb of the first century the first century before Christ until the 1 Century after Christ within the space of the church we have the tomb the Quarry and golgatha all those three things together give us the sort of sight that could well have been used for the tomb of Christ and the date the tomb was created can be fine-tuned even further under Jewish law burials had to be outside City walls but records show that Jerusalem expanded over the site of the Holy Seiler in 41 ad therefore the very latest the tombs beneath the church could have been constructed was 10 years after Christ's death the time frame was narrowing and for Professor bidd the evidence was adding [Music] up this would have been a very uneven Rocky landscape with many many small quaries for large blocks of stone between the quaries areas of cultivated ground the gospels call it a garden but it's a cultivated ground really and certainly Rock Cut tombs here we know of several and of course Joseph of arth here had already made a rock cut tomb on this site before the crucifixion took place so it's a Jewish cemetery of the 1 Century ad in the middle of a long aband and quarry with patches of cultivation it's a remarkable piece of confirmation of the authenticity of the traditional site of the [Music] B the Church of the Holy Seiler seems to have all the landmarks of Christ's burial place but in 325 ad what allowed the emperor Constantine to identify that exact tomb am the rubble and thousands of other tombs in the Years immediately after the crucifixion Christ's tomb may have been easily recognizable but in the second century it was completely buried by the Emperor hadrien who built a temple to the Roman gods on the site the biddles believe that a reference to golgatha in a thirdd century book means that part of the stone must still have been visible but others disagree and think that from the time hadrien built his Pagan Temple the site was completely covered and [Music] forgotten 200 years later they say when Constantine began searching there would have been no way to identify the site these critics believe Constantine could have picked any tomb in any Quarry he had recently made Christianity the favored religion of Rome and had political reasons for wanting to disc cover the site Constantine was creating a new official religion which had to look back in its roots this religion had to go back to its Origins and it had to create foundations that there would be visible to the world the tomb had to be discovered and it was discovered in the middle of the city of AIA capalina a pagan City and the church was built over it to show to the world that this is the center of Christianity and really it had become visible that there was a victory here a Christian victory over the pagans I think such criticism of Constantine that he needed a tomb for political reasons so he invented a tomb now that's purely gratuitous I mean there's not the slightest bit of evidence for that what I believe is that there was a consistent memory in Jerusalem Christians of course who venerated Jesus as a holy man they certainly in keeping with the customs of their age they would have gone to pray at his tomb so they knew exactly where it was and when hadrien built this Temple to Juno Jupiter and minurva the capitaline temple right over that site then of course the Christian memory in Jerusalem was intensified by bitterness he excluded their visits to the tomb of their holiest person then subsequently when visitors came they were told I presume with great anger it's under there right in the middle of the city that's where he was crucified that's where he was buried and look we can't get there but even with directions from local Christians what made Constantine certain he had found precisely the right burial chamber when he dismantled the Pagan Temple and dug down into the cemetery what did he find that made him sure he had uncovered Christ's actual tomb was there something about the tomb that differentiated it from the others that were discovered here the historian eusebius who saw the tomb when it was unearth said it provided clear and visible proof of Christ's Resurrection what clue had he seen the biddles believe they might find the answer not in Jerusalem but here in the ancient city of Rome like the Church of the Holy Seiler Roman catacombs beneath the city were important sites of religious pilgrimage for early Christians people came to pray near the bodies of early popes and [Music] Saints Professor bidd believes that in addition to the bodies these Roman tombs hold a clue that would have allowed Constantine to identify Christ's tomb back in Jerusalem 300 years after the crucifixion took [Music] place this is the Crypt of the popes in the catacumba kalistus about 40 ft underground just outside the walls of Rome now just outside the entrance of this Crypt are walls with plaster still surviving on it and this plaster is covered with hundreds of scratched inscriptions with graffiti if you like not only are they up and down the wall but they're one on top of another in different hands and different Stars over a long period of time the reason that I wanted to look at this is because I think that in Jerusalem when the tomb of Christ was uncovered in 325 or 326 what led uus to identify it so confidently as the Tomb of Jesus as the place of the Resurrection was that the walls outside were covered with graffiti just like [Music] [Music] these one of the most extraordinary inscriptions here I think is this one which says Jus kitas at ornamentum Jerusalem City and ornament marum day of the martyrs of God it takes us right back to Jerusalem but what takes us even closer is it here just very faintly between Jerusalem and the word ornamentum somebody in a later hand has written in Greek anastasis the resurrection it chose how these ideas although we may be in Rome they're all part of a commonalty of Christian behavior of visiting the places of saints and martys visiting the rock C Tomb of Jesus leaving their prayers and their names in graffiti Professor bidd believes the same would have been true in Jerusalem the whole idea of course being that the Saints and martyrs are physically present in this place where their bodies lie as well as in heaven so that they form a bridge between Earth and Heaven and can carry the prayers and wishes of those who are praying here and who are scratching their prayers and wishes on these walls up to heaven and it's an astonishing idea but that is the whole idea that lies behind the veneration of the place in which Martyrs and Saints are buried so perhaps here in the Church of the Holy Seiler deep within the ornate outer shell of the edicule lies a Rock Cut tomb whose entrance is scratched with prayers and dedications that identify it as the tomb of [Music] Christ I think Professor biddle's theory that the tomb was identified by Constantine's Engineers because the name Jesus was scratched on one side or the other I think that make to me that makes perfect sense I think it's a brilliant idea because I live in Jerusalem it's a place to which pilgrims come I have to give directions and the same thing would have been true in the first century where busy people with lives to live and businesses to run they would be pastored by pilgrims where is the Tomb of Jesus well I say look you see that big Quarry go down there look along the west wall and you'll see the name Jesus scratched on one [Music] side outside the church this tradition of Christian graffiti can be seen on the 12th century columns that Tower over the entrance here hundreds of pilgrims and Crusaders have scratched their prayers into the stones if the biddle's theory is right and the tomb beneath the Ule was marked in a similar fashion Constantine would have found evidence that the burial chamber he uncovered and then enshrine really did belong to [Music] Christ but it will take modern technology and the removal of much red tape to give the biddles the opportunity to prove they are [Music] correct in an unprecedented gesture the various Church authorities allow the biddles to call in a structural archaeologist who uses thermal imaging and endoscopic cameras to look through old buildings and reveal their inner layers Robert deas expects the pictures he takes to give a clear indication of any structure hidden within the [Music] Ule at long last the biddles will have the chance to look for the actual tomb that they believe is there and to prove that their earlier three-dimensional models of the ules were correct when they began their initial research they thought all that existed of the edicule was the most recent 19th century Chapel but since then they have found much evidence that the Chapels were actually constructed like nested Russian dolls with four successive structures from the 4th 11th 16th and 19th centuries built one outside the [Music] other with his endoscopic camera deas will be the first person to actually look inside the walls of the [Music] edicule I can control the end so that I can put it into the into the Gap in the stone it is difficult to keep a sense of scale if not proportion um to give you an idea I was looking at a building in London and came face to face with what I first took to be a 3-ft cockroach nearly jumped off the scaffolding before realizing that it was a perfectly standard but I can see straight away here that there's enormous potential for this because we're getting crystal clear images there's a picture of Alvis pres good gracious it's not pres no but it's a picture these are little prayers or thanksgivings demas's endoscopic camera Works within the walls but his thermal imaging system takes longer to reveal its Secrets he will have to stay overnight to collect thermal photographs that can detail the hidden structures the church is closed for the evening but to Moss stays behind this is the best time for him to work as he will get the clearest images of the Ule once the body heat from the day's visitors has dissipated this works to some extent like an ordinary video camera but we're looking at wavelengths and the infrared range rather than visible light and by that we're able to detect very small variations in temperature if you think of Photography as looking at variations in shade and light then thermography is basically looking at variations in heat and cold now obviously with light you can see the variations with the naked eye but with infrared radiation you have to use a very specific camera to pick up that particular wavelength of energy and that's what this camera does the back of the thermal imaging camera has to cool down to- 175 Centigrade um this enables it to be extremely sensitive to Tiny variations this particular camera which is the most sensitive portable camera available on the civilian Market um is able to detect differences as small as 025 degree and particularly when we're looking at a building like this where there are very small temperature changes through the day and through the night and between different elements of the building that ability to pick up very small changes is most important I'm looking always for changes in the temperature and the way that the heat is Flowing out of the panels um those with a lower Mass will tend to cool down more quickly and those which have bigger Mass or attached to other structure behind will tend to hold their heat longer deas hopes the camera will reveal some of the inner structure of the edicule but his pictures will have to be processed and carefully analyzed before he can be sure he has [Music] succeeded it takes about a month before he is ready to reveal his results he meets the biddles in England to show them what he has found the computer with the sort of stuff that you're using you probably better the thermal pictures from the church show that there is at least one completely separate building within the 19th century outer shell looks much nicer straight on just as the bidd had suspected it is a separate structure if you like uh the the visible areas of the ill um don't seem to be relating to what's going on behind and when we started looking through with endoscopes that certainly confirmed that that there was no visible connection between the outer skin and what we could see of what was inside it felt exactly the endoscope videos corroborate what the thermal images were indicating that there were inner walls within but separate from the most recent outer structure check with this this isn't an area that's actually moved out very much excellent so there's physically air between the outer skin everywhere we look there's physically air or very loose crumbly material now if that's the case the inner by definition is going to be earlier and this these walls are so thick as the photometric plan shows and the skin is so thin that there is a tremendous amount of space which now I think we can be sure of does include the remains of earlier edues and and the other side of the the results from thermal and endoscopic Imaging confirm the BD theory that the remains of earlier structures still exist within the current edicule and and they also provide evidence that there really may be a rock cut tomb beneath the Chapels the thermal camera shows heat as red and cool as yellow on the left side where the tomb should be the temperature seems hotter this could indicate the presence of the actual burial chamberi that b there so it's Square once again the endoscope reveals more details quite clearly in several places we can see cut stone possibly even living Rock from which the original tomb was cut it's a remarkable result Robert there's much to do but my goodness what a step forward the cameras have delve farther inside the edicule than anyone has ever gone and revealed strong evidence that the tomb exists Within but for now there is no way to actually see what remains however like the rest of the church the crumbling edicule will one day need to be renovated and when that time comes the bid are certain that at least part of the actual tomb of Christ will be found the exciting and extraordinary thing is that after 11 years of developing ideas about the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy supper we seem to see these ideas coming true there is a Rock tomb surviving in some way inside the present edicule there are remains of earlier ules and the whole tradition of the site whether it's plac names or historical evidence is that this is indeed the original Rock tomb of Christ

Channel: Nazaret Tour

Views: 695,872

Keywords: jerusalem, tomb of jesus, holy sepulchre, church of the holy sepulchre, jesus, holyland, holy land, garden tomb, jesus story, holy tomb, jesus christ die, the church of holy sepulchre in jerusalem, the church of holy sepulchre, israel, pilgrim, tanah perjanjian, holylandtour, nazaret tour, tour ziarah yerusalem, yerusalem, tour ziarah israel, ziarah ke israel

Id: 8iKaySkQZjo

Length: 52min 11sec (3131 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 28 2016