In the middle of the west side of the rotunda is the entrance of a chapel belonging to the Syrians, and through the south wall of this we pass into a small grotto, hewn in the rock, in which are some tombs said to have been made by Joseph of Arimathea, after he had given up his own; in these he and Nicodemus are said to have been buried. On the truth of the tradition I express no opinion; but certainly the existence of the rock above the level of the ground, and still more the presence of the tombs, is a strong proof of the genuineness of the Holy Sepulchre. Both here[425], and in the neighbouring chapel, the rock on rising from the floor mounts towards the west; thus indicating the lower level of the excavations round the Sepulchre. The tombs shew that the place must have been outside the walls before Agrippa traced out his new line on the north, because, as I have already observed, the Jewish law did not allow them to be among dwelling-houses. The antiquity of these tombs is placed beyond question by their shape, and by the marks left by the tools of the workmen who excavated them, which perfectly correspond with those that may still be examined in the numerous burying-places in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. I must not omit to mention that two of the above-named tombs are very small; these have been begun, and left unfinished before reaching their full size; and any one who will take the trouble to visit the Tombs of the Judges[426] will see that they were excavated and completed in the same manner as these so-called Sepulchres of Joseph and Nicodemus, and that the same kind of instruments were used, of which I shall presently speak more particularly. I mention the Tombs of the Judges, because sepulchres may there be seen in different stages, finished and unfinished, of which there is no other example near Jerusalem.