Religious & Historical Sites

Rachel’s Tomb is a small domed structure marking the grave of Jacob’s favorite wife, who died giving birth to Benjamin and “was buried on the way to Ephrath, which Bethlehem”(Gen.35,19). Revered by Christians and Moslems as well as Jews, ...

Built on the steep bank of the Kidron Valley, in the heart of the Judean wilderness between Bethlehem and Dead Sea, the Laura of St. Saba’s, the founder who died in 533, is one of the most venerated of ...

Solomon’s pools located in the south-west of Bethlehem near the old road (Al-quds-Hebron road) that runs from Jerusalem to Hebron, Bethlehem. It is far away by 4 kilometers from the birthplace of Jesus Christ “glory to his name” in ...

Set on a high hilltop in the Judean wilderness is the strange, truncated cone of Herodion, built by Herod the great in 37 B.C. and described in detail by Josephus Flavius in his wars of the Jews. Archaeological diggings ...

The milky white church of the milk grotto is a Franciscan chapel built over the cave in which the holy family sheltered during the flight to Egypt. When King Herod heard from the three wise men that the new ...

Shepherds still pasture their flocks around Bethlehem, where the shepherds heard the good tidings of Jesus’ birth from the angel of the lord who told them to go to Bethlehem to adore the child. Shepherds’ Fields, sometimes called Ruth’s ...

Adjacent to the church of the Nativity is the Franciscan Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria, sensitively restored by Antonio Barluzzi in 1933. From here, the Christmas service at Bethlehem is broadcast all over the world. A statue of ...

Luke 2, 7 describes how Mary brought forth her firstborn son, and laid him in a manger; because there was not room in the inn. Over this cave-like manger, traditionally Jesus’ birthplace arose the Basilica of the Nativity. From ...