This week I saw an article about an old stone from a Medieval Altar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been found. I first thought that it had just been found recently, but discovered that it was in the news last year after being announced by Reuters. Further research showed that it was found back in 2016 and had been mentioned in an article by Smithsonian Magazine in 2018.

I decided to see if I had a picture of the stone in the place where it was found as it was mentioned the it was covered with graffiti on the side that was visible.

As I looked through some of my pictures to see if I could find one. I decided to share some of the pictures that I have taken tonight. Here is an iconic picture of the ladder that has stayed in place for a very long time. There is an interesting story as to why it seems to be out of place.

I also ran across a picture of some ladders inside of the church building. These are probably used quite often, and probably very few people have taken pictures of them 🙂

I also really liked this picture of one of the domes in the building

Here is a picture of the great dome over the Holy Edicule. This picture was taken back in 2015 before restoration work began on the structure. I was back in June of 2016 when the restoration work was underway and took some interesting pictures of the restoration process.

However, the most interesting picture from 2016 is the next one.

Here is the piece of the Medieval altar that was found during the restoration process. The piece was sitting in a corridor just near the edicule in plain site. It looked significant, so I had to take a picture of it. The stone had been lifted by a crane onto the cart, but the decorations had not been notice right away. I wonder if I saw it before they discovered the significance of the decorations?

Except for a few mostly overlooked articles in 2018 it was not generally known about until last year when a report about it was published.

Steven