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Graves and mosaics were found in the rock during archaeological excavations near the castle, located in the Turkish city of Urfa
According to the Turkish website Karar.com, archaeologists suggest that during the excavation, they found the tomb of the family of king Abgar. They believe that 10 members of his family are buried in the tomb.
Archaeologists working in the area have already cleaned and prepared numerous tombs for tourists.
Clerics from the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian churches have recognized the need to repair Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem. (Photo: AP)
JERUSALEM (BBC) —A team of experts has begun restoring the ancient tomb in Jerusalem where Christians believe Jesus was buried, in the first such works for 200 years.
The renovation in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre aims to reinforce and conserve the structure.
Rivalry between the three denominations that run the church has delayed work.
But clerics from the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian churches have put aside their differences, recognizing the need to begin repairs.
The work will focus on the Edicule, the ancient chamber housing Jesus’s tomb which Christians say stands above the spot where Jesus’s body was anointed, wrapped in cloth and buried.
The last restoration work to take place there was in 1810 after a fire.
The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian authorities are responsible for running different parts of the church but share responsibility for the shrine.
Relations between them can be tense – in 2008, an argument between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks escalated into a brawl – but they have decided to act jointly after Israel’s antiquities authority last year said the church was unsafe and Israeli police briefly closed it.
“We equally decided the required renovation was necessary to be done, so we agreed upon it,” said Samuel Aghoyan, the top Armenian Church official there.
The scientific coordinator for the repairs, Antonia Moropoulou, said the tomb was stable but warped and needed attention after many years of exposure to water, humidity and candle smoke.
“The structure also needed to be protected from the risk of earthquake damage,” she said.
Work is expected to take between eight and 12 months and during that time pilgrims will be able to continue visiting the site, church officials said.
Each denomination is contributing funds for the $3.3m (£2.3m) project. In addition, King Abdullah of Jordan has made a personal donation.
Jordan controlled Jerusalem’s Old City, where the church is located, until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and continues to play a role in safeguarding Muslim and Christian holy sites there.
A Syrian man from Syria’s Kurdish town of Kobani has claimed that the land on which Turkey has chosen to move the recently exhumed remains of Süleyman Şah actually belongs to him and that no one informed him that the tomb would be built on his private property, a Turkish daily has reported.
According to a report published by the Vatan daily on Tuesday, the plot of land Turkey chose to rebuild the tomb, which is about 200 meters away from the Turkish-Syrian border in Şanlıurfa in an area being called Syrian Eşme, belongs to a 45-year-old Syrian man named Bozan Osman
Speaking to the daily, Osman, who took shelter in Şanlıurfa’s Birecik district near his relatives when clashes between Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Kurdish fighters broke out last autumn, said the land where the new tomb will reportedly be built belongs to him. He added that he didn’t sell the land or make any agreement with anyone regarding it.
“I saw Turkish soldiers going toward our village on [Saturday] night. I mean, the distance is [so close], around 200 meters. When we looked there [his land] in the morning, we saw the troops. I went to our mukhtar, Suphi Yavuz, and asked if the Turkish troops were on our land. The mukhtar told me: ‘Nothing bad will happen. The Turkish Republic is a big state and it won’t cause you grievance.’ The area is around 1,000 square meters. The whole of it belongs to me. No one came to me beforehand to inform me [that the tomb would be placed there],” Osman said.
The Syrian man also claimed that he went to speak with the Turkish soldiers and they also told him that “nothing bad will happen.”
He spoke about how the conditions of war in the area have affected him and the 12 members of his family, and he asked the Turkish government for help: “We are already in a difficult situation. While we were in Syria, we were earning our living by farming the land where the tomb will be built. We had planted wheat and barley. We are asking for help from the Turkish government. Land in Syria is too expensive. We don’t know what will happen.”