The Holy Land: Part 3 - Nazareth

NAZARETH!!

This is a view of Nazareth from our hotel window......we apparently brought the Arabian wind and sand with us, but the duststorm blew through after a day and the sky and air cleared up by the next morning! :)

Nazareth was not quite the quaint little village I imagined....LOL! It was really neat to be there though and imagine what it must have looked like back in the day when Jesus lived there.

We visited the traditional "holy" sites such as the Basilica of the Annunciation, Church of St. Joseph, Mary's Well and the Wedding Church in Cana. I didn't realize until visiting this little country, that it has had a VERY destructive pattern of conquerors. Queen Helena built churches over these sacred grottos/caves back in the 4th century, then the Byzantines came and destroyed them. After the Byzantines, came the Crusaders who rebuilt the churches. Not for long though, because along came the Mamelukes to destroy them all again. Finally, the Roman Catholic Church bought a lot of these plots of land these places are on, and they rebuilt large churches/cathedrals over the old remains and original sites in order to preserve them. For almost EVERY site we went to, this was the story! Learned a lot about the pillage of this area for sure! It was surprising to learn that there really wasn't a lot of original anything left from the time of Jesus.

Our first stop in Nazareth was the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is supposedly built over the house where Mary was visited by the angel. (Luke 1:26-38)

The Basilica of the Annunciation

Inside

Looking up at the dome

Us inside! LOL

The inner sanctuary, where the remains of Mary's grotto are.

These are more remains outside the church that are currently being excavated.

Inside the Church of St. Joseph which is built over the original remains of Joseph's home and carpentry shop.

The walls of the original carpentry workshop in the basement of the church!

This is the church built over Mary's Well, where Mary supposedly went to get water everyday...

From Nazareth, we drove 10 minutes to the small village of Cana where we went to the Wedding Church of Cana, built over the site where Jesus performed His first miracle of turning water into wine. (John 2:1-11)

These are some old wine jugs that have been unearthed at the site.

Inside the church.....they were getting ready for an actual wedding!

Here comes the bride! :)

This is a large water/wine container that would have been like the one Jesus turned from water into wine.

Alright, that sums up Nazareth.......I will post my Sea of Galilee pics tomorrow! :)