The controversial ladder in the Holy Sepulchre Church of Jerusalem-It has been lying exactly on the same spot for almost 150 years!

The ladder you see in the following photographs appear in every known photographs and paintings of the modern Holy Sepulchre Church. It has been lying there since sometime before 1852! As the Church of Holy Sepulchre is presently owned by the not so friendly six Christian communities, every inch of the complex is jealously guarded. Any change in the current status, even if it is the position of a candle, becomes a big issue and many times Israeli police had to interfere to quench the conflicts. No wonder why the holiest site of Christianity is still opened and closed by a Muslim.

There are several speculations about why the ladder is retained. Here is a nice article by James E. Lancaster on the issue
http://www.geocities.com/jim_lancaster.geo/ladder.html.

One of the reasons Lancaster discusses and which appears to be the most accepted one is as follows: "The problem stems from the fact that the two windows above (the ladder) belong to the Armenians and they have the right to clean and repair them, and the cornice on which the ladder rests belongs to the Greek Orthodox. At some point (last century) the Armenians put out the ladder for the purpose of doing work on the windows, [and] the Greeks protested that the ladder was resting on their portion. The Armenians refused to remove the ladder - hence the frozen reality".