Ever wondered what the tomb of St Peter looks like? The floor of the vatican is just the roof that covers the tomb of St Peter as well as the many Popes that have lived before us. 

Deep in the earth below the great basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome the clink of pickaxes and the scrape of shovels in the hands of workmen have been echoing dimly for 10 years. In the utmost secrecy, they have penetrated into a pagan cemetery buried for 16 centuries. Architects feared they might disturb the foundations on which rests the world’s largest church. But the workmen, with careful hands, pushed forward finally to the area where, according to a basic tenet of the Catholic Church, the bones of St. peter were buried about A.D. 66.

Scientists say that the condition of the bones they have found describe a man who was about 65 years old at the time of his death. Bizarrely, the skeleton was preserved in its entirety, apart from the feet, which were missing. Theorists say that the absence of feet isn’t surprising, because if the man was crucified upside down, the easiest way to remove him from the cross would be too slice off his feet. Ouch!

[Source: Times Life]