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Bethlehem & Surroundings |
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The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Christ, and it is considered sacred by Christians. |
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The church is said to be built on the site of Christ's appearance to St. Catherine of Alexandria and his prediction of her martyrdom (c.310 AD). She is buried on Mt. Sinai. The church is first recorded in the 15th century and may incorporate the chapter house of the 12th-century Crusader monastery that stood on the site. Traces of a 5th-century monastery associated with St. Jerome also exist here. St. Catherine's Church was enlarged in 1881 with funds from the Emperor of Austria.
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Southeast of the Church of Nativity. It is a Franciscan Church over the cave where tradition says the Virgin Mary spilt milk while nursing Jesus. The drops turned black stones milk white. Packets of this powdery white stone are sold to pilgrims, allegedly with power to increase flow of mother's milk. |
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This is the site that commemorates the appearance of angels to the shepherds to herald the birth of Jesus. Today there is a Catholic church there and, further along the hill, a building owned by the YMCA.
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Part of the Herodian water system that took water from a nearby spring, deposited it in these pools and then took it to the Temple in Jerusalem via an aqueduct that was still in use at the beginning of this century, over 1,900 years later. Situated south of Bethlehem on the Hebron road.
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Is the traditional gravesite of the Biblical Matriarch Rachel and is widely considered the third holiest site in Judaism.
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