It might be termed a sarcophagus open on one side, or a small grotto with the opening to the south; the lower edge of the bed was three palms above the ground. The rock was red veined with white, and still bore the marks of the tools by which it had been hewn out." From the numerous notices of it during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, I select that of Willibrand of Oldenburg[414]. "The rock ... which, still uninjured, and cased with marble, is exposed in three places to the touch and kisses of pilgrims." It was visited during the fifteenth century by Breydenbach, who writes as follows[415]: "The cave, in which is the Lord's Sepulchre, is wholly cased with marble on the outside, but inside is the native rock, just as it was at the time of the burial." In the beginning of the present century it was seen by Abbé Mariti, before the fire of 1808; his account[416] agrees with those just quoted, and confirms the testimony given me by eye-witnesses. It seems then impossible to deny that the Tomb of Christ still exists upon the traditionary site, and that it in all respects resembles one of those sepulchral chambers, hewn in the rock, which can be seen at the present day in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem[417]; in which the corpse is extended upon a shelf, under an arched niche, excavated in one of the side walls of the tomb, some little distance above the ground. The arch above the shelf is indeed no longer to be seen, because it has been destroyed, perhaps during Hakem's reign: but the two side walls, which supported it at the head and foot of the shelf, still remain, and, encased with white marble, form the altar at which the Priests celebrate mass. It would be more satisfactory to the incredulous if this covering were removed, but if this were done the rock itself would not long remain. Each traveller and pilgrim would practise every possible device in order to obtain a fragment as a relic; and it would be a hard matter to persuade the Eastern pilgrims, and above all others, the Americans, to keep their hands off it.