JERUSALEM — When it comes to pinpointing sacred biblical sites in the Holy Land and beyond, sometimes the most certain thing about the historical location is the uncertainty.
Was the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem in a cave — at the present-day spot of the 14-point silver star inlaid in a marble floor of a grotto underneath the Church of the Nativity? Or perhaps elsewhere in the system of grottos that extend under the adjacent Chapel of Saint Catherine? Or somewhere else in or around Bethlehem, the small village that has since grown to a city of more than 30,000?
Was the Savior crucified and then entombed at the two locations enveloped by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the tomb cut away over the centuries to be encased by a shrine called the Aedicule? Or might the Crucifixion and burial have taken place at or near Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb respectively, both outside the walls of the Old City?
And when individuals want to “walk where Jesus walked” while traversing the walkways of old Jerusalem, do they understand that the city has been built among layers of stone, soil and debris from changing and conquering peoples and periods — Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman, just to name a few? With the Old City’s “layers” going 20 to 30 feet deep in some locations, one might instead “walk over where Jesus walked.”
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