ABSTRACT

The initial construction project at the Holy Sepulchre complex is well documented by the fourth-century bishop Eusebius, who recounts the demolition of the Roman Temple of Aphrodite that had covered the rumored empty tomb since the second century ce. From the beginning, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the sacred sites it encompassed were described as physical testimonies to the truth of biblical text. The architecture of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at all points in its history, was designed both to provide a space for the celebration of liturgy and to frame an encounter between the faithful and the sacred. In 1009, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim ordered his provincial governor to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Byzantine Holy Sepulchre built off of the physical fabric and metaphorical associations of its Late Antique predecessor, using each in service to eleventh-century rituals and traditions.