This is going to be a marathon. I may have to break it up into components because there is so much here. Choosing pictures to narrow down to is almost impossible because of the richness of the content. I’ll do my best.
We start early in the morning by walking through the Jaffa Gate, past the tattoo place again (the tat is fine and healing nicely), and we come around a corner to this.
This church was built by Constantine and his mother Helena and it is incredible. I mean INCREDIBLE. There are different religions that lay claim to it and they all have to agree when things are done to the church, which can be problematic. Note the ladder in the picture headed up to one of the upper windows. The story goes that there was someone trying to bring food to hungry people, either taking it in or out I’m not sure, but they couldn’t agree who would take the ladder down, so it’s been up there for well over 100 years. The courtyard in front of it is open, a respite from the sidewalks that have buildings/walls several storied high on either side, which is a very hemmed-in-and-nowher-to-go feeling. First thing as we go in, Mike notices that the line to see the place where the cross was is empty, so we make a bee-line for that area quick. We go up a steep staircase and see such beautiful artwork.
The oldest mosaic. On the ceiling. So cool.
Then we ducked under this altar to put our hand into a hole and feel the stone where the cross stood. Whoa.
From around the back it looks like this.
And this. Very cool. Then we go down steps and start to walk down a hallway a few steps. Mike keeps walking, but Evan, who was at the church earlier that morning with pastor, pulls me aside and shows me this.
This is the stone directly below where we just were, Golgotha, the place of the skull…and this is the crack in the stone hill right below the cross. This is one of the ways they identify where Jesus’ cross was…the earthquake when He died…it cracked the rock below the cross. This is one of my favorite spots in the whole tour. This is another…right down the hall from this…
This is the Stone of Flagellation. It was moved here from the Antonia Fortress where Jesus was sentenced and punished. Yep, this is the stone they bound Him to when they whipped Him. I cried. I am again now as I type this. It’s just powerful.
We then walk down into another area of the church, a chapel.
Along the walls of the steps, we see thousands of crosses carved into the rock, like this.
THOUSANDS of them. These crosses date back to the Crusades. Crusaders who made it to Jerusalem carved a cross here to mark that they had made it. It was amazing to see them everywhere in this staircase. The staircase went down to the chapel, and then another went even further down yet, to this.
This is a statue of Mary with the cross. This is where they found the cross of Jesus, when the Roman took Jerusalem. They took the cross back to Rome with them and carved it up into littler pieces and distributed the pieces to many different churches. It was said that the cross had healing properties. This art shows the spot.
We then go back upstairs and see the Jewish tomb area. The place they believe was Jesus’/Joseph of Arimethia’s tomb has been destroyed over and over. There is a Jewish tomb a few steps away that is intact, and we got to see that one.
And inside, which isn’t a great picture because it was pitch black.
This is not far at all from Golgatha. A very short walk. 
This is the dome directly above the tomb area.
This building inside a building around the tomb. Not far from this was a new portion that just opened, even pastor hadn’t seen it before it was so new. This is a place that would have held Jesus as a prisoner. His legs would have been put into the holes, and bound underneath so He couldn’t escape. Also near Golgatha and the tomb.
Sorry, the picture is upside down. The lit circles are for His legs.
One more thing before I wrap up this particular blog…right below the cross, and between it and the tomb, is the Rock of Anointment. This is where Jesus body was laid after it was taken down from the cross to prepare it for burial. It was a bit smaller than a twin size bed, just big enough to lay a body.
Pretty amazing. Right behind me as I’m taking this picture is the most beautiful mosaic depicting the cross to the tomb story.
My pictures do not do it justice. It’s really beautiful.
Next we went to another part of the church, but I’ll break the story here for the next blog entry.