The garden tomb of Jesus is located outside the city walls of Jerusalem and close to the Damascus Gate. Many believe this location, and not the traditional site of the burial at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is the place where Jesus' body was taken after he died on the cross. In 1842 A.D. Otto Thenius proposed that a location known as the "place of the skull" was the Calvary (Golgotha) where the crucifixion of Jesus occurred. In 1867 A.D. the garden tomb was discovered near this believed location of Jesus' death. The connection of the place of the skull with the garden tomb believed to be where Jesus was buried was given prominence by British general Charles Gordon. This is why the garden tomb is sometimes referred to as "Gordon's Tomb." In 1883 General Gordon found a rocky escarpment (now situated behind a bus station) which from several angles resembled the face of a skull. Golgotha, the name of the place where Jesus was crucified; is a Aramaic word meaning skull. Gordon concluded that the rocky escarpment he believed looked like a skull was likely to have been Golgotha. The Garden tomb itself has two chambers, the second to the right of the first, with stone benches along the sides of each wall in the second chamber, except the wall joining it to the first, and along the back wall of the first chamber. The benches have been heavily damaged but are still discernible. The edge of the groove outside the tomb has a diagonal edge. As was prophesied (Isaiah 53:8-9) Jesus, though crucified as a common criminal, is buried in the tomb of a rich man: "Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. "When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed." (Matthew 27:57-60, NKJV)
Sources: Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible; Wikipedia, The Resurrection Tomb by E. Raymond Capt. | 