It is located on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives, some 2.4 km (1.5 miles) east of the city limits of Jerusalem.

The tomb is the purported site of a miracle recorded in the Gospel of John in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

"[2] Archeologists have established that the area was used as a cemetery in the 1st century AD, with tombs of this period found "a short distance north of the church.

The adjacent Roman Catholic Church of Saint Lazarus, built between 1952 and 1955 under the auspices of the Franciscan Order, stands upon the site of several much older ones.

[6] Egeria noted, when the liturgy for Lazarus on the Saturday in the seventh week of Lent was performed, "so many people have gathered that they fill not only the Lazarium itself, but all the fields around.

"[7] The Lazarium consisted of the church (to the east of the site), the tomb of Lazarus (to the west), and an open space between the two which probably served as an atrium.

This church was mentioned by the Coptic Pope Theodosius I of Alexandria c. 518[8] and by the Frankish bishop Arculf in his narrative of the Holy Land c.

The second church followed the same general plan as the first, but the apse was situated about 13 metres (43 ft) to the east in order to create a larger atrium.

[10] In 1138, King Fulk and Queen Melisende obtained the village of Bethany from the Latin patriarch in exchange for land near Hebron.

For the use of the convent, the queen had a new church built over the tomb of St. Lazarus with a triapsidiole east end supported by barrel vaults (the largest of which would be used for the currently existing mosque).

For 100 years after the mosque was constructed, Christians were invited to worship in it, but the practice was frowned upon by European church authorities who preferred for adherents of the faiths to remain separate.

In 1863, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land gained title to a plot of ground close to the tomb of Lazarus.

[3] Nearby the church are ruins that belong to the Orthodox Patriarchate and are traditionally identified either as the House of Simon the Leper or Lazarus.