Stone of Anointing

Just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing (also Stone of the Anointing or
Stone of Unction), which tradition believes to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for
burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition is only attested since the crusader era
(notably by the Italian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in 1288), and the present
stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.[21]
The wall behind the stone is defined by its striking blue balconies and tau cross-bearing red
banners (depicting the insignia of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre), and is decorated with
lamps. The modern mosaic along the wall depicts the anointing of Jesus' body.
The wall was a temporary addition to support the arch above it, which had been weakened after
the damage in the 1808 fire; it blocks the view of the rotunda, separates the entrance from the
Catholicon, sits on top of the now-empty and desecrated graves of four 12th-century crusader
kingsincluding Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalemand is no longer structurally
necessary. There is a difference of opinion as to whether it is the 13th Station of the Cross, which
others identify as the lowering of Jesus from the cross and locate between the 11th and 12th
stations up on Calvary.
The lamps that hang over the Stone of Unction, adorned with cross-bearing chain links, are
contributed by Armenians, Copts, Greeks and Latins.
Immediately to the left of the entrance is a bench that has traditionally been used by the church's
Muslim doorkeepers, along with some Christian clergy, as well as electrical wiring. To the right
of the entrance is a wall along the ambulatory containing, to the very right, the staircase leading
to Golgatha. Further along the same wall is the entrance to the Chapel of Adam.