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Nazareth is
a town in northern Israel. Has a population of about 60,000, of
whom half are Arab Muslim and half are Arab Christian. Nazareth was
the hometown of Jesus and thus is one of the most important
Christian sites in the Holy Land. Important sights in Nazareth
include several churches, traditional biblical sites, Byzantine
ruins, and especially the modern Basilica of the Annunciation.
A mountainous
walled city Jerusalem is sacred to the three great
monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - which
means it is sacred to more than a third of the world's population.
For Jews, Jerusalem is the site of the Temple, now in ruins except
for the Western Wall; for Christians, it is the site of Christ's
death and resurrection; for Muslims, it is the site of the Prophet's
night journey to heaven. Jerusalem is therefore a major site of
pilgrimage for all three religions.
Perched on a
hill at the edge of the Judean desert just 5 miles south of
Jerusalem, Bethlehem is the childhood home of the biblical
King David. It is also the birthplace of Jesus Christ and has been a
major site of Christian pilgrimage since the construction of the
Church of the Nativity. |
