LEICESTER: The stone tomb covering the grave of Richard III was unveiled on Friday, the last act in the reburial of the 15th-century king found beneath a car park.

The 2.3-ton slab of Swaledale fossil stone went on public display the day after he was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral, central England, in the presence of royalty.

The light-coloured stone was quarried from land that Richard once owned in Yorkshire, his northern English stronghold.

The oblong tombstone, facing east, is slightly tilted upwards and has a Christian cross deeply carved into its surface.

Richard’s coffin was reburied in the Leicester Cathedral on Thursday, across the street from where his remains were discovered in 2012.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, England’s highest cleric, sprinkled it with holy water and threw on soil from the places where Richard was born, grew up and was slain.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play