Conrad Schick (1822–1901) came to Jerusalem in 1846 from Germany as a missionary and became a correspondent for the Palestine Exploration Fund and scholarly European journals. In 1867, when a farmer trying to hew a cistern into a rocky hill discovered the cave that would become known as the Garden Tomb, Schick visited the site and wrote up a brief report. Some years later, the suggestion was made that the cave had been the burial place of Jesus. Schick revisited the cave, excavated in front of it and issued a new, detailed report.