The World's Most Contested Church

Christ's tomb and the Nero of Egypt

From the moment the nails pierced Christ’s hands, one site has been revered by Christians more than any other — the place of his death and burial, Jerusalem.

While Jerusalem itself is a flashpoint of inter-religious conflict, Jesus’s tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is even more so. Not only do the half-dozen Christian groups who administer it frequently break into open conflict during services, but the very ground on which the church is built has been torn between religions since the third century. 

But no event has defined the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s history as much as its destruction at the hands of a 10th-century Islamic ruler. His life and actions, which took place over a millennium ago, continue to shape our world today…