This short guide to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem describes one of the most puzzling buildings in existence. Of all sacred buildings it has perhaps been worse treated by man than any other. Built by Constantine the Great as a 'house of prayer' to be an 'object of veneration to all' at 'the most blessed place of the Saviour's Resurrection,' it replaced a pagan temple erected on the site by the Emperor Hadrian. In the west it is generally spoken of as the Holy Sepulchre, but Greeks and Arabs still call it by its original name, the Church of the Anastasis or Resurrection.
