Garden grave

The garden grave is a special place. It is assumed that this tomb is the garden and tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and, according to legend, the place of the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden Grave is called the Protestant Calvary. In 1882, an English officer, General Charles Gordon, saw a rock near the Shechem Gate, the caves of which resembled a human face. Protestants claim that in the time of Christ there was a place for public executions, and it was here that St. Stephen was slaughtered. Archaeologists have found a large number of ancient tombs from the First Temple period.

Bertha Stafford notes that the Garden Grave belonged to an American colony. Due to the excavations, the original landscape was changed, and the connection of the Garden Grave with Mount Antonia was dismantled. It’s hard to see what this place originally looked like.

The Garden Grave is important not only for Protestants but also for Muslims. To mark the end of Ramadan, Muslims fire a cannon as it houses a prestigious Arab cemetery. Muslim tradition says that this is where the Last Judgment begins.