The name of the church comes from the Latin for chicken (gallus, not something I knew) and for singer (cantor, a word still in use): chicken singer; rooster' song; cock crow. We are on the traditional site of Peter's denial, and thus also of Jesus' detention.
A roadway of steps rising from the valley floor below does go back to the period.
The caves below the church do make a convincing setting for the prison.
Much survives from the Byzantine church on the site including this quotation from Psalm 121: 'may the Lord preserve your coming in and your going out'.
The modern church has these statues; the site is almost in the shadow of the Temple which stood in Jesus' day where the two domes are in the background are.
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