How do I resolve a "Access is denied by context rewrite." error?

Question

You may notice that access to a website is being denied with an error, likely a 403.  Upon checking the /etc/apache2/logs/error_log file, you notice the following error popping up for your website.

Access is denied by context rewrite.

Why does this happen?

Answer

This error occurs when a rewrite rule in place for your domain is preventing access to your website.  This could be within an Apache include, or more likely, within your domain's .htaccess.

In this instance, you will want to review your domain's .htaccess file and any other location where there may be rewrite rules in place for your domain.  

Please see the following documentation for information on how to use mod_rewrite.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html