Tomb of the Virgin Mary
— the stone steps go down, then down again.
Not only on a wall.
“An underground sanctuary in the Kidron Valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives, a short walk below the Garden of Gethsemane. The Crusader facade opens onto a long flight of stone steps descending into the rock, where Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopian communities each keep a corner. The air is cool. Lamps hang low. The studio's tile holds the dark of the descent more than the daylight at the door.
Tomb of the Virgin Mary, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Tomb of the Virgin Mary, also called the Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary, sits in the Kidron Valley in East Jerusalem, between the Old City walls and the Mount of Olives. The present cruciform underground church dates to the Crusader twelfth century, built over a Byzantine sanctuary that itself enclosed a rock-cut tomb attributed by Eastern Christian tradition to the burial place of Mary. The site is administered jointly by the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic patriarchates, with smaller shares held by the Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopian churches.
A single broad staircase of forty-seven worn limestone steps descends from the Crusader facade to the underground church, the only entry. Halfway down, on the right, a small chapel marks a tradition of the tomb of Joachim and Anne, Mary's parents; on the left, that of Joseph. At the base, the rock-cut tomb itself stands as a free-standing aedicule, faced in marble and lit by hanging oil lamps from the several communities that share the sanctuary.
The tomb is open to visitors most days from roughly six in the morning to noon and again from two to five in the afternoon, without an entry fee. Modest dress covering shoulders and knees is required, as at all the Jerusalem holy sites. Photography is permitted at the discretion of the resident clergy and is generally tolerated outside services. The Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations stand a few minutes' walk uphill across the Jericho Road.