Joseph's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר יוסף, Qever Yosef, Arabic: قبر يوسف, Qabr Yūsuf) is a funerary monument located at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, 300 metres northwest of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus, near Tell Balata, the site of Shakmu in the Late Bronze Age and later biblical Shechem. One biblical tradition identifies the general area of Shechem as the resting-place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, and his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
Joseph's tomb has been venerated throughout the ages by Samaritans, for whom it is the second holiest site, by Jews, for whom it is the 5th in order of holiness, and by Christians and Muslims. Post-biblical records regarding the location of Joseph's Tomb at this site date from the beginning of the 4th-century AD. The present structure, a small rectangular room with a cenotaph, dates from 1868, and is devoid of any trace of ancient building materials. While some scholars, such as Kenneth Kitchen and James K. Hoffmeier still affirm the essential historicity of the biblical account of Joseph, many others, such as Donald B. Redford, argue that the story itself has ‘no basis in fact’.
Modern scholarship has yet to determine whether or not the present cenotaph is to be identified with the ancient biblical gravesite. No Jewish or Christian sources prior to the 5th century mention the tomb, and the structure originally erected over it appears to have been built by the Samaritans, for whom it was probably a sacred site. There is no archaeological evidence establishing the tomb to Joseph and for this reason the site is regarded as a 'relic tomb', established by later religious figures to reinforce a faith.
From Murray: (page 342-3)
Joseph’s Tomb.—In the very centre of the valley's mouth, a short distance N. of the well, is a little square area enclosed by a high white wall, and having a common Muslem tomb placed diagonally across the floor—this is the traditional tomb of Joseph. There is nothing about it to interest one, or to give evidence of antiquity; yet it is most probably genuine. Joseph on his death-bed “took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” (Gen. 1. 25.) “And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem.” (Josh. xxiv. 32.)
See Bædekere (1898) Route 22 page 252