untouched the reconstruction of 1810; it is probably the largest dome of its type ever built in Palestine. The belfry is twelfth-century work, but has lost its topmost story.
The two-storied Romanesque façade is interesting: the lower story forms a double portal, the lintels of both doors being adorned with admirable bas-reliefs of the twelfth century. The upper story encloses windows.
The interior is divided into two principal parts, the Rotunda and the old "Chorus Dominorum," now the Orthodox cathedral. The Rotunda, whose central object is the small shrine covering the Tomb of Christ, dates in its present form, together with its dome and the shrine of the Sepulchre, from the nineteenth century, although the design and dimensions have been meticulously preserved from the earlier buildings. On the other hand, the "Chorus Dominorum" and transept date from the twelfth century, the vaulting over the transept being of particular interest as the earliest known example of the diagonal rib, a feature which differentiates pure Gothic from Romanesque. The chapels of Golgotha are reached by steps leading upwards from the east of the porch; the interesting chapel of S. Helena is at a lower level and is reached by a flight of steps descending from the ambulatory. From S. Helena's chapel another flight of steps leads down to the chapel of the Invention of the Cross.
What renders the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of outstanding interest, apart from its sanctity in the eyes of a large portion of mankind, is the fact that it is shared by representatives of most of the Churches of Christendom. Roman Catholies, Orthodox, Armenians, Jacobites, Copts and Abyssinians have their appointed chapels and rights within its walls (formerly also Georgians and Nestorians), and in it is celebrated almost every known form of Christian liturgy and ritual. During Holy Week and at the other great festivals of the Christian year it offers to the spectator a diversity of Christian ceremonial visible nowhere else under one roof.
Adjoining the Holy Sepulchre to the south-east is the
