Holy Sepulchure Tomb of Christ

[Plato]

Hi all. Just thought I'd post some stuff in this section about Biblical Holy Land anthropology/ archeology I've researched that people might find interesting or for discussion.
I thought I'd start with Jesus tomb and the Holy Sepulchure Church in Jerusalem. After Roman emperor Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem and removed it from the earth after the last Roman-Jewish War 132-136AD, depopulated Judea and exiled the Jews...he is said to have built a temple to Venus on the spot of ground where Christ's tomb had been, and a temple to Zeus-Jupiter on the temple mount spot where the Jewish Temple had been, for his new all Roman city of Aelia Capitolina on the ground that had been Jerusalem, all by 140AD.
To build the Venus temple he filled in the below ground level ex quarry and cemetery of rock cut tombs where Jesus tomb was with earth for a flat surface and built the temple on top.
After Rome started turning Christian (313AD) the Venus temple was removed 324/325AD. An official Roman government commission sent by emperor Constantine and figureheaded by his mother arrived to find the Christian holy spots in Aelia. They had the soil removed and the quarry/ cemetery uncovered and according to their reports had no trouble locating Christ's tomb from the Christian inscriptions on it. Constantine then had the 1st Holy Sepulchure church built over and around it 325-333AD as a grand affair of interlocking courtyards, Roman collonades and shrines.
The church was improved and rebuilt in the 400's and 500's as rich Christian Romans settled in the holy city (by then renamed Jerusalem) fleeing Rome and Italy which was lost to the Romans in the 400's. By the 500's the church was described as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, with 3 golden domes, a Roman basilica, and covered in jewels and gold. Each year at Easter a procession was held to it through Jerusalem for 100,000 pilgrims.
In the last Roman-Persian War 608AD-629AD Jerusalem was taken 614 by a Jewish army raised in Persian Iraq, mercenaries for the Persians. They massacred all the city's Christian population they could find and in religious zeal desecrated the tomb and looted the church (much to the Persians displeasure, who wanted the loot for themselves and rich live Christians for taxes and ransom). The Romans/Byzantines won the war by 629 and in 630AD the rededicated church was reopened, but then all the city was surrendered/ lost to Muslim invaders 638AD.
As part of the 638AD surrender terms the Muslims promised to respect all the Christian religious sites, a promise they basically kept until the ****e Fatima Caliph of Egypt al Hakim 996-1021 (the mad Caliph) who tortured, murdered, persecuted everyone who was not a Muslim (and many Muslims too). He had the church totally destroyed and dismantled, the tomb of Jesus desecrated chopped up and removed from the earth. His shocking act was a major cause of the Crusades of the 1090's. With insane Hakim gone in 1021 the Muslims allowed the Christians to start rebuilding at the site by 1050 but not much work was complete by the run up to the Crusades starting in the 1070's.
When the Crusaders took Jerusalem 1099 they rebuilt the church in the fortress style with stone dome that still exists today. They said they found the floor and part of a wall of Christs tomb (all that was left by the Muslims) and this time covered it in stone and concrete for protection in a shrine inside the church. The way the Crusaders left things in the 1200's is pretty much how the church is today.
Modern archeology has uncoved again the 1st century Jewish quarry/cemetery and rock cut tombs under and around the church.

 

[outhouse]

the tomb of christ has not been found and no one credible backs this.

this is a attempt to sell books, its all about extorting money from the faithful.

 

[Plato]

the tomb of christ has not been found and no one credible backs this.

this is a attempt to sell books, its all about extorting money from the faithful.

Actually outhouse all the above is real 'facts' and 'history'. Now it is true of course that no one knows for sure if the tomb the Empress Helena's commission found 325AD under where the Venus temple had been was in fact the tomb of Christ. As I said above...they claimed it was (that's a proven fact)...but who knows, it could have been someone elses from the 1st century.
All we know for sure is what they said and thought and of course that Constantine and later emperors built a shrine and big opulent church over it and around it.
That the building stood with it's 3 domes and defined Jerusalem from 500-1009AD. That 10,000's of people visited the church saw the tomb and every travler's description to Jerusalem written in those years describes it, until al-Hakim destroyed building and tomb in 1009.
After al-Hakim's death the Byzantines did negociate with the Muslim rulers to build a Christian roofed pavilion at the site (history fact), which is the way the Crusaders found it when they took Jerusalem 1099.
These are all history facts...al-Hakim, the year the Crusaders took Jerusalem, the Byzantine contract to rebuild at the site, the fact Constantine built the 1st opulent giant church there..the way it was improved over the centuries....it's destruction in 1009....the destruction helping to spark the 1st Crusade...found in all in depth history books for 100's of years.
So, I'm not sure 'what part' you mean isn't credible?
Now, of course if the Crusaders actually found the floor and a little of the wall of the prior tomb...no one knows...history only knows (as fact) that's what they said (wrote). The fact they say they covered it in rock and concrete 'to protect it' I would agree makes it a bit suspicious that it's even there.
But archeology has proven the existance of 1st century tombs and cemetery under the church (fact) and history knows Christians venerated 1 tomb there as that of Christ since at least 300AD (fact).