A Rival Site: The Garden Tomb
Image idea: the Garden Tomb in its quiet garden outside the Old City.
Some Christians, mainly Protestants, visit a different site called the Garden Tomb, just north of the Old City walls. In 1883, the British general Charles Gordon claimed it was the true burial place of Jesus.
It is a peaceful place, and it feels like the garden in the Gospels. But Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay dated the tomb to around 700 years before Jesus, so it could not have been the “new” tomb the Gospels describe.
Many visitors still love the Garden Tomb as a calm place to pray and reflect. Most archaeologists, however, see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the far stronger candidate.