The Garden Tomb

The Garden Tomb, north of the Jerusalem Old City’s Damascus Gate near the American Colony Hotel, is believed by many Protestants to be the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden Tomb is owned and administered by a Christian non-denominational charitable trust based in the United Kingdom.

The Garden Tomb is open for tours and worship services Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9 to noon and 2-5pm for free. 

Garden of Gethsemane

According to the Gospels, Jesus prayed overnight with his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane until authorities arrested him early on Friday morning before the crucifixion, commemorated on Good Friday.

Gethsemane means “olive press” in Greek, and in Jesus’ time this was indeed an olive grove. Some very old olive trees are still alive in the garden and are harvested every October.

Floor-to ceiling mosaics in the 1920s Church of All Nations illustrate the events in Jesus’ life that took place at this site.

Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion

According to Christian tradition, this site also corresponds to the location of Caiaphas’ palace, where Jesus was tried prior to the crucifixion. The present church, inaugurated in 1931, was built on the site of an earlier church from the Byzantine period.

A new church is built over a complex of ancient cisterns and storage rooms carved into the bedrock, and it is believed that this is where the house of Caiaphas the High Priest was located. Visitors can walk through these underground chambers.

Photo: Saint Peter in Gallicantu church on Mount Zion near the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo by Yossi Zamir/Flash 90