Located behind a bus station just outside the walls of the Old City, the rocky escarpment pictured above is believed by many Christians to be the Golgotha, or the Calvary, the skull-shaped hill where Jesus was said to have been crucified.
The exact location of the Golgotha mentioned in the Bible is disputed by religious scholars and archaeologists — most Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, just a few yards away from the site pictured above.
Since the 19th century, however, Protestants have venerated this rock, and the adjacent Garden Tomb, as the real site of the crucifixion, in large part due to its remarkable resemblance to a skull:
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A closer look at the Golgotha reveals fresh clues about the perennial religious tensions plaguing the city.
Six months ago, Jerusalem's Islamic Waqf, the trust that controls the city's Islamic holy sites, erected two signs on top of the Golgotha rock, part of its expansion of a two century-old Islamic cemetery.
The first sign reads: Cemetery For The Islamic Mujahideen
The second reads: There Is No God But Allah, And Muhammed Is His Messenger
Unsurprisingly, Christians have been rankled by the signs, which they see as an encroachment on their holy site. Earlier this year, the Garden Tomb Association sued to stop the cemetery expansion, but the municipal government in Jerusalem ruled in favor of the Waqf.
The dispute is a minor modern manifestation of the religious turf war that is perennially threatening to upset the delicate status quo between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Jerusalem. All three faiths have staked a claim to the city and its holy sites, which are literally built on top of one another. Within that context, the Golgotha zoning dispute provides further evidence of just how difficult it will be to find any permanent resolution to the conflict over Jerusalem.