Nazareth

was the home of Joseph and Mary, the town where Jesus grew up as a child. In Jesus' day, Nazareth was a small agricultural village with about 2,000 inhabitants.

Church of Annunciation

A Byzantine church was built over the place where it is believed that the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary. In 1966 the

Roman Catholic Church began constructing a new basilica over these remains and today this church is the largest church building in the Middle East.

The current church is a two-story building constructed in 1969 over the site of an earlier Byzantine-era and then Crusader-era church. Inside, the

lower level contains the Grotto of the Annunciation, believed by many Christians to be the remains of the original childhood home of Mary.