Archeologists have finally uncovered the surface of what is traditionally known as the resting place of Jesus Christ.
The excavation is a restoration project by a team of scientists from the National Technical University of Athens, under the direction of Chief Scientific Supervisor Professor Antonia Moropoulou.
The tomb is located in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem.
According to an exclusive report by National Geographic, "the tomb has been covered by marble cladding since at least 1555 A.D., and most likely centuries earlier."
Christian tradition states that Jesus Christ's body was laid on top of a "burial bed", which was cut out from the side of a limestone cave. This burial bed itself is enclosed by a small structure known as Edicule or little house. It is believed that after three days of his death, Jesus was resurrected and his body was never found.
After nonstop working for 60 hours, researchers finally reached the original limestone burial bed and it was found intact.
"I'm absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn't expecting this," said Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence.
"We can't say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades."
Researchers have further announced that the Edicule housed the original limestone cave walls.
"This is the Holy Rock that has been revered for centuries, but only now can actually be seen," said Chief Scientific Supervisor Professor Antonia Moropoulou.
However, it is impossible to be 100 percent sure that this is the place where Jesus was buried, but indirect evidence suggested that such claims over the centuries might be reasonable.
National Geographic further stated that the earliest accounts of Jesus' burial came from the Canonical Gospels, and one account repeatedly stands out about how Christ was buried in a rock-cut tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish follower of Jesus.
According to archaeologist and National Geographic grantee Jodi Magness , archaeologists have identified more than a thousand such rock-cut tombs in the area around Jerusalem. Each one of these family tombs consisted of one or more burial chambers with long niches cut into the sides of the rock to accommodate individual bodies.
"All of this is perfectly consistent with what we know about how wealthy Jews disposed of their dead in the time of Jesus," concludes Magness.
"This does not, of course, prove that the event was historical. But what it does suggest is that whatever the sources were for the gospel accounts, they were familiar with this tradition and these burial customs."
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