Archaeologists made a sensational discovery at the site where Jesus was resurrected. Photo

Archaeologists have found a long-lost altar near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The sensational discovery was made by accident when builders overturned a giant stone slab that was lying near the wall of the shrine where Jesus was resurrected.

It was believed that the altar was destroyed in a fire in 1808. But it turned out that it was in front of hundreds of pilgrims every day, who also regularly painted it with graffiti, not realizing that it was an invaluable Christian artifact, writes DailyMail.

The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is designated as the shrine of Jesus' crucifixion and tomb. Every year there are about four million visitors. And none of them have ever noticed the peculiarity of this massive stone, which is 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide.

When construction workers decided to remove the stone that had been standing there for a long time, they saw something extraordinary. On the reverse side, the slab was decorated with ribbon ornaments that were typical of the Roman tradition in the Middle Ages. Subsequently, the scientists also saw clear markings on the stone, demonstrating that it was an altar consecrated in 1149.

The team of researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), which was the first to study the found altar, emphasized that this discovery is a sensation for historians in several ways.

"The very fact that the slab could remain hidden for so long in such an intensively studied building as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in front of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day, is incredible," the researchers wrote.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is over 1645 meters in diameter, was built on top of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in 335 AD. During the construction, a tomb believed to belong to Jesus Christ was discovered here.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was destroyed by the Persian army in 614 and almost completely rebuilt in 1009. In the 1800s, the church suffered a devastating fire in which the altar was believed to have been lost.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!