Church of The Holy Sepulchre - Catholicon and Ambulatory

Catholicon and Ambulatory

• The Catholicon - On the east side opposite the Rotunda is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. The second, smaller dome sits directly over the centre of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas, an omphalos once thought to be the centre of the world (associated to the site of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection), is situated. East of this is a large iconostasis demarcating the Orthodox sanctuary before which is set the throne of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem on the south side facing the throne of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch on the north side.

• Prison of Christ - In the north-east side of the complex there is The Prison of Christ, alleged by the Franciscans to be where Jesus was held. The Greek Orthodox allege that the real place that Jesus was held was the similarly named Prison of Christ, within their Monastery of the Praetorium, located near the Church of Ecce Homo, at the first station on the Via Dolorosa. The Armenians regard a recess in the Monastery of the Flagellation, a building near the second station on the Via Dolorosa, as the Prison of Christ. A cistern among the ruins near the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu is also alleged to have been the Prison of Christ.

Further to the east in the ambulatory are three chapels (from south to north):

• Greek Chapel of St. Longinus - The Orthodox Greek chapel is dedicated to St. Longinus, a Roman soldier who according the New Testament pierced Jesus with a spear.
• Armenian Chapel of Division of Robes -
• Greek Chapel of the Derision - the southernmost chapel in the ambulatory.