According to a report by National Geographic, researchers from the National Technical University of Athens have announced that the Edicule, a shrine inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that encloses the cave in which Jesus Christ is believed to have been buried and resurrected by his many followers, faces a potentially disastrous collapse if some issues relevant to its structural integrity aren’t addressed and alleviated soon.
During a months-long, $4 million restoration project for the shrine which was unveiled earlier this week, they have noticed the problems with the foundation which they say is now further destabilized due to having been built on wreckage atop a network of tunnels and channels.
At the Monday unveiling of the restored shrine ex-Chief for the World Monuments Fund declared that the complex project amounted to “This is a complete transformation of the monument”. However, throughout the renovation itself, camera bots and ground-penetrating radar highlighted a real structural cause for concern. The general instability of the site has been known for near a century, but as several Christian sects have been fighting over who has true custody of the shrine, none have reached a working agreement on how to go about addressing the problems until as late as March of 2016.
Now, National Technical University of Athens says is needs an estimated $6.5 million for a structural project that can take close to another year as worker’s work to fix cracks and install sewage routes to prevent future water damages.
