In this close up of his face you can see more clearly if this is a mustache and part of a beard. His face looks rather narrow. That may be from his face coming through the cloth as it would not be able to get the sides very well.

A kind of flower has been detected on both the Shroud and the face cloth. The blooms that have been discovered in the cloth came from Jerusalem and only bloom in March and April, when Christ was to have been crucfied.

Researchers in texas said the carbon dating that was done has been contaminated by a bio plastic layer. The contamination makes the dating seem more recent than it really is. They found the same thing on an Egyption bird that was really older than the carbon dating calculations.

Key facts about Turin Shroud

TURIN, May 24 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul on Sunday prayed before the Turin Shroud, an ancient linen sheet revered by some Christians as the burial cloth that wrapped Christ's body after his crucifixion.

Following is a guide to the mysterious relic dismissed by some sceptics as a fake or mediaeval forgery but which continues to enthral and baffle both pilgrims and scientists.

WHAT IS IT? The Turin Shroud is a fragile, yellowing linen cloth measuring 4.4 by 1.2 metres (14.5 by 3.9 feet) on which a ghostly full-length image of the front and back of a man is visible as if in a photographic negative.

The image first came to light 100 years ago when a photographer, Secondo Pia, took the first picture in 1898.

WHY IS IT CALLED THE TURIN SHROUD? The Shroud, which some Christians believe is nearly 2,000 years old, is believed to have been brought to France from the Middle East during the five crusades in around 1356.

In 1453, it became the property of the Duke of Savoy, who took it to the French town of Chambery, near the Alps. The House of Savoy, Italy's former royal family, took it to its seat in the northwest city of Turin in 1578 and ex-king Umberto II bequeathed it to Pope John Paul in 1983.

WHERE IS IT KEPT? The Turin Shroud is kept in a silver casket that was housed in the Guarini Chapel of Turin's cathedral, or Duomo, and later behind the high altar. It was saved from a fire in April 1997.

It is on display for the public until June 13 in the Duomo inside a glass case filled with inert gas. This is only the fourth time this century the Shroud has gone on show to the public.

It was displayed in 1931 and 1933, and some three million people saw it when it was last brought out in 1978 to mark the 400th anniversary of its arrival in Turin. It will next be put on display in 2000, to mark the Roman Catholic Church's Holy Year, or Jubilee.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?: The first thing anyone looking at the Shroud sees are triangular patches added after a fire in 1532, water marks and stains.

The image itself appears on closer inspection like a photographic negative of a bearded man with shoulder- length hair and his hands folded.

Some of the marks look like blood stains. Marks corresponding with Gospel descriptions of Christ's crucifixion - including a crown of thorns, the sign of lashes and a lance wound in the side - are also visible.

There are no signs of decomposition - consistent with the Church's teachings that Christ was resurrected after three days. According to studies, the man was 1.77 metres (5 feet 10 inches) tall, weighed 70 kg (154 pounds) and was aged 30-35.

HOW DID THE IMAGE GET THERE? No one has proved conclusively how the image - which is three-dimensional, heat-resistant and apparently indelible - was transferred onto the cloth.

The image was at one time attributed to master Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, but most scientists now say it cannot have been painted or printed. One theory is that an image slowly emerges after a body has come into contact for a time with a cellulose material, such as linen. Analyses have found type AB blood from a man on the cloth.

IS IT GENUINE? The most controversial analysis of the Shroud's authenticity was carried out in 1988 when scientists in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona, conducted carbon-dating tests.

Their sensational verdict was that the Turin Shroud dated from between 1260 and 1390, suggesting to many that it was a mediaeval fake. Some scientists say traces of pollens from plants growing around Jerusalem at the time of Christ's crucifixion have been found on the Shroud.

Others say contamination of the cloth over the centuries - from water damage and fire, for example - were not sufficiently taken into account and could have distorted the results of the carbon dating tests.

12:23 05-24-98