ABSTRACT
Let us begin our account from the lifegiving Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ.1 The church of the Holy Sepulchre is rounded in shape and sited at the centre of the Holy City of Jerusalem. It has two domes and joined to it in the middle of the holy church a very beautiful bell-tower. These elements, standing apart, represent a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Where the dome projects above the Holy Sepulchre it is not covered by any roof, because from there the Holy Fire comes down; the rest of the dome is roofed with lead and inside it is covered all around by a timber structure following the circle of the wall. From the circle and below are depicted in mosaic work all the saints, Constantine the Great and St Helena. Below the prophets, panels of purple marble are fastened to the wall. The places for the catechumens are set out encircling the Holy Sepulchre.2 There are also eight marble columns and bases outside the standing places, and at floor level sixteen columns and a massive arch.3 In the centre of the rotunda at ground level a stone ædicule is to be seen, and inside the ædicule is the Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When you enter the door of the Holy Sepulchre you see lying the stone that was rolled away from the tomb, like a holy table, white and very beautiful. And the Holy Sepulchre is made of very beautiful marble. And above the Holy Sepulchre hang thirty lamps, two of which burn continually, night and day. There is depicted the wrapping of Christ in the clothes of the dead; then the Resurrection, and then the Ascension. Around the Sepulchre marble panels are fixed to the walls; and on the pavement inside it is another stone on which the angel sat and said to the women, ‘Whom do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth? He has risen; He is not here.’4 Above the stone hang four lamps. Above the Holy Sepulchre is a
golden capitals and displays on all sides various pictures in golden mosaic. Thence comes down the Holy Light on the Holy and Great Saturday at the time of vespers, and it attaches itself to the Holy Sepulchre and immediately the lamps hanging there are lit. There are side chapels5 of the heretic Armenians, Jacobites, Indians and Nestorians. We hold the entire body of the church. Between the two domes extends a broad vault, on which are to be seen depicted in mosaic the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Annunciation of the most Holy Virgin. And there hangs a lamp. Below the dome on the floor is the navel of the earth, the centre of the world. And there hangs a chandelier. And there are four enormous arches. Below that dome is the choir of the church, in which the Orthodox perform the liturgies. It is decorated with mosaic, in which Christ is seen depicted affixed; and words are inscribed with these letters: ‘God be with us. Understand, you people, and submit.’6 Twelve columns occupy the circumference of the choir; and above hang four lamps. There is the throne of the patriarch. Thirty lamps burn before the holy table, which is covered with a variously embroidered cloth. After the choir is the Prison of Christ, separated by fifteen feet from the holy choir.
