"He is Risen"

This is a sign that is in the Garden. Our religion teacher told us that President Hinckley once walked past this sign and said something to the effect of "I do pray for that."
This is the place they think may have been Golgotha, which means "place of the skull". On the right side of this rocky cliff there are two little caves with a ridge in the middle. The two caves are supposed to be the eyes of the skull.
Outside the Garden Tomb.

After church meetings today, our entire group walked up to the Eastern city to take a tour of the Garden Tomb. This site is considered by many to be the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and therefore a possible site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The streets of East Jerusalem that lead to the tomb were very crowded and crazy today and it was amazing to experience the contrasting feelings between those streets and the garden where the tomb is located. Once we got into the garden, it was as if the city surrounding us didn't exist anymore. We were taken on a tour around the garden which also included a site possibly associated with the crucifixion.

Our tour started out near the tomb where the tour guide gave us some background information on tombs of that day and quoted a lot of scriptures from the New Testament. It was really cool because he was basically, in his own way, bearing his testimony of the resurrection to us. We then all had the opportunity to go inside the tomb and see where the occupant of the tomb had once laid.

No one is sure of any specific location concerning the resurrection, but there have been a few Apostles and Prophets who have commented on their feelings about the Garden tomb. President Harold B. Lee said while reviewing his visit to the Holy Land "Something seemed to impress us as we stood there (Garden Tomb), that this was the holiest place of all, and we fancied we could have witnessed the dramatic scene that took place there."

After our tour, we had the opportunity to read and ponder the scriptures in the Garden and I could feel a spirit of peace there. I don't know if that was in fact the burial place of Christ, but I do know that the spirit was there testifying of the fact that Christ was resurrected. We also were able to sing several hymns in the Garden as several tour groups passed around us. Several of them stopped to listen and even film us and I could tell that they felt something as well.

I really enjoyed going to the Garden tomb because it was a peaceful place where you could escape the noise and chaos of the city and ponder the life and death of Christ.