These archaeological nuns consist of the following main elements:

• Remnants of the Judgement Gate built in the I'1 century B.C. by King Herod the Great
• Remnants of an arch and two columns, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the beginning of the 2nd century A.D.
• Remnants of the Basilica built by the Byzantine queen St. Helena at the beginning of the 4th century
• Remnants of a cloister of the Chanoines, (a holy order of monks who were servants at the Holy Sepulchre during the time of the Crusaders).
• The Eye of the Needle.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS FOUND AT THE RUSSIAN EXCAVATIONS
At the time of the Judaean Kings of the House of David, on the place where today there is an arch, stood the City Wall built by Nehemiah. Close to that area in the City Wall was a gate called the Gate ofEphraim. 
King Herod, when fortifying the second (outer) line of the City Walls in that area of Jerusalem moved that part of the wall 36 m (118 ft) westwards and had a ditch dug around the outer wall. The ditch was 17 m (55.8 ft) wide and 6 m (19.7 ft.) deep. In the space between the former wall and the new wall stood a small fort topped with four little towers and close to the fort was built a separate tower, which stands beside the new Gate ofEphraim.
To the east of the wall, there was and still is a market place.
In order to go out of the city in that place, one had to go through what used to be called the "Judgement Gate" (whose threshold is now the property of the Orthodox Palestine Society and is kept under glass at the Russian Excavations-see page 8). Having passed through the Judgement Gate, one had to cross the yard of the fort, walk through the tower at the Gate of Ephraim, and only then would one be outside the City Walls. Having passed through the Gate of Ephraim, one stepped into the ditch that surrounded the city. 
Climbing out of the ditch on its outer side, one could walk up to Golgotha. There, at the time of the Saviour and for a long time before that, were performed the executions which invariably took place outside the City Walls.
The Romans, who at the time of Christ, were the rulers in the Holy Land, had the following custom. In Rome, when persons sentenced to death were taken to be executed, they were led through the Esquiline Gate, their names and crimes publicly announced by criers. This was done in order to give those about to die a last chance to be cleared of the accusations.
Should anyone, who was not present at the trial and knew of some hitherto unknown circumstances of the case, raise his voice in protest against the death sentence - the prisoner's escort were bound by law to return him to the procurator for a new trial. This was the Roman concept of justice and of giving a person sentenced to death a fair chance of retrial. The Romans, who were anxious whenever possible to avoid a miscarriage of justice, introduced this custom into all parts of the vast Roman Empire. In Jerusalem, those sentenced to death were taken to the place of execution through the Judgement Gate, where anyone had the right to object if he knew of a reason why the sentence should not be carried out. There is no doubt
whatsoever that Our Lord was taken to Golgotha through this very Gate. Not one voice was raised in objection to His sentence; a symbol of the betrayal of Jesus Christ by humanity.
The stone threshold of the Judgement Gate remains excellently preserved. The grooves scooped out in the extremities of the long stone, where the pivots of both wings of the Gate turned, are clearly seen. So are the grooves in the middle, where bolts were pushed in when the Gate was locked.
The stone threshold is one of the most sacred shrines of Christianity and is known under the name of "Holy Threshold of the Judgement Gate". Eternal lights are kept 
at the Holy Threshold, cared for by Russian clergy with the donations from Rus-
sians living in exile, outside of Russia.
In the year 70 A.D. Jerusalem was conquered and the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city according to the Roman pattern and renamed it Aelia Capitolina.
Several main avenues traversed the city, including the avenue that ran from the
Zion Gate to the Damascus Gate and had a colonnade along its entire length.
That avenue was 9 m (29.5 ft) in width and the colonnade 51/2 m (18 ft.) tall. 
In the middle of the colonnade was a threegate arch 19 m (62.3 ft.) wide, 12 m (39.4 ft.) tall and 10 m (32.8 ft.) deep. 
This arch led to the temples of Venus and Cupid, built by the Emperor Hadrian over Golgotha, the Cave of the Resurrection and other sites holy to the Christians in order
to prevent them from worshipping there. The remnants of the left gate of the arch are enclosed in the building of the Russian Excavations, as mentioned at the beginning of this pamphlet.
Two centuries later. Emperor Constantine the Great defeated the Roman Emperor Maxentius and Christianity became a moral force dominating Roman paganism. Constantine's mother. Queen Helena, came to the Holy Land to worship at
the Holy Sites of Christ's Martyrdom.
She searched for and found the Holy Cross, Golgotha and the Cave of the Resurrection. There she decided to build an enormous temple - a Basilica - that would encompass in its walls all these holy shrines. The eastern wall of Herod's fortress was used as the facade of the Basilica. Remnants of this wall can be seen 
at the Russian Excavations to the left of the Holy Threshold. The wall continues towards the north inside the Excavations; one of the three gates of that wall can 
be seen at the end of the wall fragment.
Before that wall and parallel to it stood Hadrian's colon nade. Two of its columns are now contained within the walls of the Russian Excavations building. They were part of the propyleum (roofed and colonnaded entrance) of the Basilica.
Inside the Basilica itself there was a staircase leading to a well preserved underground church known as the Temple of St. Helena. This Church is an integral part of the present day Holy Sepulchre Church and is situated in the above-mentioned ditch that existed outside the City Wall. From there it is possible 
to reach a small chapel even further below, called the Chapel of the Finding of the Cross, situated at a distance of less than 8 meters (26.2 ft.) from the Russian Excavations.
That splendid Basilica was destroyed by the Persians at the beginning of the 7th century but was re-built in the same century by the Jerusalem Patriarch Modestus. In 1009 it was once more destroyed by Caliph Haldm, never to be rebuilt in its
former dimensions. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomachos restored the Basilica to its present limited size, completing the work in 1048.
The Threshold of the Judgement Gate had remained for centuries buried and forgotten under layers of earth and dirt and ruins, until it was discovered in the middle of the 19th century. At the place between the site of the Russian Excavations
and the present day Church of the Holy Sepulchre, stood a cloister built by the Crusaders and called the Cloister of the Chanoines. Remnants of the refectory of that cloister are still seen in the chapel of a Russian saint, St Alexander Nevsky,
built in 1896 on the site of the Russian Excavations. One of the main purposes of this building was to create a memorial to the late Russian Emperor Alexander the Third, the founder and main supporter of the Orthodox Palestine Society. He was
named after Grand Prince St. Alexander Nevsky.
Services are conducted in this chapel by order of the Holy Synod every Thursday and prayers said for the soul of Emperor Alexander III.