The Bible describes Jesus’ burial place as a tomb carved into rock, set inside a garden near where he was crucified.
For nearly 1,700 years, Christians have believed that tomb lies within Jerusalem‘s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The first church was built over the site by Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, and generations of pilgrims have since traveled there to pray where Christ is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected.
Now, with excavations beneath the church complete, archaeologists have pieced together a fuller picture of an ancient landscape that bears a striking resemblance to the one described in the Gospel of John.
Lead archaeologist Francesca Romana Stasolla told the Daily Mail: ‘We have found evidence of a funerary landscape, alongside small areas planted with vines and olive trees, as well as a pastoral landscape characterized by sporadic human activity.’
The excavations show that the church stands over an abandoned quarry outside ancient Jerusalem where cultivated plots and multiple rock-cut tombs existed side by side.
That combination closely mirrors John’s description of a garden containing a tomb near the place where Jesus was crucified.
Although no physical evidence identifies the tomb’s occupant, the parallels keep alive the possibility that early Christians preserved the true location of Jesus’ burial.
Archaeologists have found evidence beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that aligns with what the Bible says about where Jesus was buried
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre attracts an estimated four million visitors each year.
The original church was dedicated in AD 335 after Roman buildings at the site, traditionally described as a temple to the goddess Venus, were demolished.
During the work, builders uncovered a rock-cut chamber that was identified as the burial place of Jesus, who had died nearly 300 years earlier.
Emperor Constantine’s workers focused on one particular tomb that was already being venerated as Christ’s burial place, excavating around it to separate it from the surrounding graves.
The second church at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands today, was built and restored starting around 614 to 626 AD, following the destruction and fire caused by the Persian Sassanid invasion.
The discoveries add to the ongoing debate over the location of Jesus’ burial.
Many scholars support the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the site, citing the presence of rock-cut tombs from the first century.
Others argue that the Garden Tomb, another ancient burial site in Jerusalem, better matches biblical descriptions.
There is a long-held debate over where Jesus was laid to rest. Some say the church while others believe he was put inside an ancient rock-cut tomb, known as the Garden Tomb (pictured), which aligns with Biblical text
Archeologists were excavating the floor of the church (pictured) when they uncovered signs of an ancient garden that is mentioned in the Bible as where Jesus was laid to rest
The latest findings are detailed in a new 98-page preliminary report published in Liber Annuus, the archaeological journal of Jerusalem’s Studium Biblicum Franciscanum.
The report brings together results from the final 2025 excavation campaign, completing a project that began during a major restoration of the church’s floor in March 2022.
Evidence of the ancient garden was first announced in 2025, but completed excavations have now allowed researchers to reconstruct how the cultivated land, abandoned quarry and burial chambers fitted together across the wider site.
The report revealed that the landscape began as a vast stone quarry cut into the side of a hill outside Jerusalem’s ancient walls, with some sections reaching nearly 20 feet beneath the church’s present floor.
As stone extraction gradually ended, the deepest areas were filled with soil and divided by low dry-stone walls, creating small plots that could be cultivated.
‘Evidence of cultivation is provided by archaeobotanical and pollen remains, which have enabled us to reconstruct a landscape suitable for pastoralism, with natural vegetation used for grazing,’ Stasolla said.
The first church was built over the site by Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. Pictured on the right is part of the foundation wall of Constantine’s church
Above are Christians touching the Unction Stone at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which they believe marks the sacred spot where the body of Jesus was washed, anointed with spices, and wrapped in linen for burial
‘This type of Mediterranean landscape was widespread throughout the region and coexisted with the abandoned quarry area and the presence of rock-cut tombs.’
Researchers dated the cultivated landscape through its position within the archaeological layers and pottery recovered from the quarry fills.
The evidence places it after the quarry was abandoned but before Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the area in the second century AD, a broad period encompassing the lifetime of Jesus.
However, the plant remains have not been given an absolute laboratory date, meaning archaeologists cannot prove the garden was being cultivated at the precise time of Christ’s crucifixion.
Archaeologists also recovered traces of fruits, legumes and wild vegetation, revealing an open Mediterranean landscape that was cultivated, visited and used for grazing but not permanently inhabited.
At the same time, exposed rock faces left behind by the quarry provided ideal locations for burial chambers to be carved directly into the stone.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre attracts an estimated four million visitors each year
The inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre features stunning mosaics throughout
Researchers found multiple tombs opening into the same former quarry at different heights, connected by narrow paths winding between the graves and cultivated plots.
The result was a complex landscape where gardens, grazing land and rock-cut tombs existed together, just as the Gospel of John places a garden and burial chamber beside the site of Jesus’ crucifixion.
John 19:41 reads: ‘Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.’
The garden reference is one of several clues contained in the Bible.
John 19:20 places the crucifixion close to Jerusalem, while Hebrews 13:12 says Jesus suffered outside the city gate. Archaeologists found that the quarry stood outside Jerusalem’s walls at the time of Jesus but remained close to the city, matching both descriptions.
Matthew, Mark and Luke each describe Jesus’ grave as having been carved from rock. The excavations confirmed that the gardenlike landscape was also a genuine ancient burial ground containing multiple chambers cut directly into the quarry’s exposed stone.
John also states that the tomb was close to the crucifixion site, allowing Jesus to be buried quickly before the Jewish Sabbath began.
A Roman structure erected during Emperor Hadrian’s reign in the second century stood directly against the tomb. Pictured are foundation walls constructed during his reign
Many Christians come to see the Stone of Anointing in Holy Sepulchre Church. Above are two nuns praying before the stone
At the Holy Sepulchre, the chamber traditionally identified as his tomb and the rock of Calvary exist within the same compact area.
None of those features was unique in ancient Jerusalem, as abandoned quarries were commonly reused for cultivation and burials.
What makes the Holy Sepulchre compelling is the convergence of all the clues in one place: outside the ancient walls but close to the city, with cultivated land, a rocky crucifixion site and a cemetery containing rock-cut tombs.
Within that burial ground, one particular chamber would eventually become the focus of centuries of Christian veneration.
A Roman structure erected during Emperor Hadrian’s reign in the second century stood directly against the tomb, making it inaccessible, while also cutting into the nearby rock of Calvary, the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion.
The report suggested the surviving Roman walls may have belonged to a smaller cult site rather than the massive pagan temple described in traditional accounts.
Roughly two centuries later, Constantine’s workers demolished the Roman structure and excavated the same location to expose the venerated tomb.
They removed the surrounding rock, separated the chamber from the other graves and constructed the first Christian shrine around it.
Its position was considered so important that architects allowed different sections of the enormous church complex to fall out of alignment rather than move the tomb.
The first monument was probably open to the sky and consisted of a small circular shrine surrounded by 12 columns, allowing early pilgrims to gather around the burial chamber.
Although none of this proves Jesus was buried inside, the decision to return to and preserve one specific tomb centuries later raises the possibility that knowledge of its location survived through generations of early Christians.
The second church at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands today, was built and restored starting around 614 to 626 AD, following the destruction and fire caused by the Persian Sassanid invasion
Stasolla said: ‘The archaeological area beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre reveals the long history of a part of Jerusalem that, in the early fourth century AD, underwent the monumentalization of Christological memory.
‘In this case, I believe that the archaeological evidence should be used primarily to understand the places and contexts in which Christian memory took shape and became firmly established.’
The evidence shows that Christians were commemorating this particular location by the fourth century, but it cannot confirm that Jesus had been buried there three centuries earlier.
Important gaps remain, as no inscription identifies Jesus, and it cannot be definitively proven that the chamber was new, nor that it had been used or belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, as the Gospels state.
The Bible says that Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Jewish council, asked Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, wrapping it in clean linen and placing it in his own unused rock-hewn tomb.
The discoveries therefore do not confirm the biblical account, but they demonstrate that the traditional site contains the principal geographical and physical features described in the New Testament.
‘The Church of the Holy Sepulchre gives monumental form to the sites where, since very early times, tradition has located the memory of Christ’s death and resurrection,’ Stasolla said.
‘Archaeology undoubtedly attests to the enduring nature of this commemorative tradition.’
