After years of searching, Italian archaeologists have discovered an ancient site that matches a Bible description of the tomb where Jesus Christ was buried.
This was made known by a preliminary study in the Jerusalem archaeological journal Liber Annuus.
“We have found evidence of a funerary landscape,” lead archaeologist Francesca Romana Stasolla, of the “La Sapienza” University of Rome, told the Daily Mail.
The researchers had been excavating Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a fourth century Roman Church that was built over a holy site where many Christians believe Christ was crucified, buried and then resurrected.
The church of the Holy Sepulchre
As a result, it’s become a mecca for religious pilgrims from across the world, attracting around four million visitors per year.
Pilgrims praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
During the final phases of the excavations in 2025, the team found a peculiar landscape that suggests they might have been onto something.
Underneath the church was an abandoned quarry, cultivated plots of land, rock-cut tombs and an ancient garden.
Coincidentally, the Book of John said: “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.”
While no one had been found in the tomb, the abundance of parallels was compelling.
John 19:20 says that the crucifixion occurred close to Jerusalem, while Hebrews 13:12 claims that it occurred outside the city gate, which was the exact location of the quarry at the time of Christ.
Sections of the quarry measured 20 feet deep and had been filled with dirt, suggesting that it served a pastoral purpose.
The site’s agricultural function was further supported by the discovery of olive trees and grapevines — possibly the same plant referenced in John 19:41 — that date back to the time of Jesus‘ de@th, which is believed to have happened around 33 A.D.
“The gospel mentions a green area between the Calvary and the tomb, and we identified these cultivated fields,” Stasolla told the Times of Israel.
In fact, the graves, which were carved directly into the stone, proved that it was an actual burial ground, and matched descriptions by Matthew, Mark and Luke of Jesus’ grave as having been carved from rock.
The evidence goes beyond parallels to the Bible. One particular chamber had been obstructed by a Roman structure built during Emperor Hadrian’s reign in the second century.
Around 200 years later, builders employed by Constantine’s workers destroyed the Roman structure and dug up the site to reveal the tomb, which they then separated from the other chambers.
While this doesn’t definitely prove that this was Jesus’ burial site, the campaign to preserve it suggested that knowledge of the site had been passed down to early generations of Christian worshippers.
“The real treasure we are revealing is the history of the people who made this site what it is by expressing their faith here,” Stasolla told the Times. “Whether someone believes or not in the historicity of the Holy Sepulchre, the fact that generations of people did is objective. The history of this place is the history of Jerusalem, and at least from a certain moment, it is the history of the worship of Jesus Christ.”