Inside the cathedral's southern door stands the Tomb of Christopher Columbus, an elaborate monument dating from 1902 with four sepulchre-bearers representing the four kingdoms of Spain at the time of Columbus' 1492 voyage: Castile, León, Aragón and Navarra. But are the bones within really those of the great explorer?

The tomb holds bones brought back from the Caribbean in 1899 and long thought to be Columbus'. However, the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean claims that Columbus' bones lie beneath a monument in its capital, Santo Domingo. Since 2003 researchers have been conducting tests on various bones from the Seville cathedral tomb and elsewhere to try to resolve the puzzle. In 2006 it was announced that the DNA of the cathedral bones matches that of Columbus' brother Diego (who was also buried in Seville), indicating that the cathedral bones are indeed the great explorer's. But Columbus' bones were moved several times after his death and it's quite possible that at one stage they went different ways. It would be strangely apt if his mortal remains, as his life was, were divided between Spain and the Caribbean.