In the north east corner of the parvis (courtyard) of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre is the entrance to Calvary (Golgotha), erected in the 12th century by
the Crusaders. The steps inside the church, used by today's visitors date back
only to the beginning of the 19th century when a devastating fire broke out in
the Armenian section of the Church, causing great damage necessitating extensive
repairs, which included, among other things, the erection of an entrance to
Calvary from inside the church. A window now replaces the actual entrance which
led into the chapel from the head of the stairs. The arched doorway, which can
be seen under the steps, is the entrance to the Chapel of Mary of Egypt. To the
right of the structure can be seen the doorway leading to two Ethiopean chapels
- first the Chapel of St. Michael and All Saints, and above it the Chapel of the
Four Living Creatures. On the wall of the latter chapel is a mural depicting the
arrival of the Queen of Sheba at Elot, when she came to visit King Solomon. The
exit from these chapels is onto the roof of the church - once the open ground of
Golgotha. Here are found the Ninth Station of the Cross, the remains of the
Crusader cloister, the Egyptian (Coptic) Patriarchate and the Ethiopean
Monastery - Deir es-Sultan.
