But another discovery must be mentioned which has some bearing on the question. A little way east of the church, on a piece of ground belonging to the Russians, the excavators passed through the remains of some bazaars which were known to have existed there in the middle ages, and below these they came upon a Byzantine pavement, which appears to be the one laid down by Constantine around the buildings which he erected. Thus it becomes morally certain that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands on the spot where Constantine built his church, believing it to be Calvary. But between the days of Christ and the days of Constantine there was time and room for mistake to arise. Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70, the Christians did not return to it until eighty years after, and by that time it might be difficult to identify the sacred sites. When Constantine came to build his church he found the site occupied by a temple of Venus, a circumstance which may argue the traditional sacredness of the site, but scarcely the tradition that it had been the Jewish place of execution. Major Conder says he could devoutly wish that the site may turn out not to be genuine, because it is disgraced by the scenes that occur there.
Passing through the doorway we enter the vestibule, in which is the Stone of Unction, a slab of marble which is devoutly kissed by pilgrims. Passing round it to the left, the rotunda of the church is reached; to the right a narrow passage with small chapels runs behind the apses of the Greek church, and here a flight of steps leads down to the subterranean Chapel of Helena with its picturesque lighting and heavy eighth century basketwork capitals. Beneath this, again, is the dark cave so suggestively named the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross. The rotunda is well lighted with a dome light blue in colour, and covered with golden lilies and arabesques. In the centre rises the old Chapel of the Sepulchre, dark and gloomy, of marble discoloured by age, surmounted by a queer cupola of Italian taste, and ornamented all along the top with gilt nosegays and modern-framed pictures. Stooping to enter, we pass into the vestibule or Chapel of the Angel, walled with marble slabs, and thence into the inner Chapel of the Sepulchre itself, where the darkness is only relieved by the glowing lamps over the altar on the tomb. The most impressive portion of the church is, however, the nave east of the rotunda, belonging to the Greeks, with its great screen in front of the three eastern apses. The floor is unoccupied, save by the short column marking the “centre of the world.” The dome above is poor, rudely whitewashed, and painted in fresco; but the glory of the place consists in the large screen and the panelling of the side walls.[47]