Scientists for the first time in 500 years, opened the tomb of Christ Газета.Ru

the gospel says that after Jesus died they put his body into one of the rooms carved into the mountain the burial caves. There on the third day occurred his resurrection. And in IV century during excavations, the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine I Elena equal to the Apostles allegedly stumbled upon a cross, after which he founded the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Now the Sepulchre is considered one of the most important Christian shrines. It is included in the complex of the Holy Sepulcher along with the Calvary, Church of the Resurrection, an underground temple of the Finding of the true cross, several churches and monasteries. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is divided between the six denominations of the Christian Church,

each of which has its own chapels and hours for prayers.

To the present day from the entire bed of Christ were only the bed itself, fragments of the walls of the cave entrance. The reason the pilgrims, burning desire by all means get yourself a piece of ancient relics. To avoid such barbaric acts, in 1555, the box was closed with a marble plate.

And now, after more than 500 years later, scientists removed the stove from the place of burial to see how it looked tomb.

Professor Antonia Moropoulou guiding the restoration of the Shrine, a small domed chapel, built over the Grave, said: “the Technology that we use to document this unique moment, let the whole world to join in our discoveries, as if they were in the tomb of Christ.”

At the opening of the tomb, which began a matter of hours after the closing of the Church, was attended by a crowd of pilgrims and tourists. Conservatives, Copts, Franciscans, Greek Orthodox priests were crowding at the entrance to the Edicule. The tomb itself is typically illuminated with wax candles, was flooded with bright electric lights. When a slab of creamy marble was pushed, the researchers found underneath a gray-beige stone surface.

Moropoulou can’t say what it is. She points to the need for research tools.

Archaeologist frédérique Eber, one of the members of the research team, said: “It will be a long scientific analysis, but in the end we will see the surface on which, according to Scripture, was a Christ.”

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 2015 with the consent of the two major communities invited researchers from the Athens Polytechnic University to study the Edicule. Earlier the employees of the same University, worked on the restoration of the Athenian Acropolis and Hagia Sophia.

the community of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre consent for restoration in March 2016, provided

that will be finished by Easter 2017. The cost of the project is $ 4 million.

To this was added the Royal donation by king of Jordan Abdullah II and another $ 1.3 million from Ertegun Miki, the widow of the founder of the record company Atlantic Records.