This day we drove east in Galilee and into the Galilee Hills. Nazareth was our first stop. Today, Nazareth is a mostly Arab and Muslim town with predominantly Arab citizens of Israel. Arabs in Nazareth have a roughly 70/30 split on being Muslim and Christian. Nazareth is famous for being the hometown of Jesus and the place that he spent his boyhood with his mother and father. He faced skeptical townspeople in Nazareth. Of course, it was probably only a town of 200 people back then.

The huge Basilica of the Annunciation was our first stop in Nazareth. This is believed to be the place where the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to miraculously conceive the son of God. The church has been rebuilt multiple times over the years. It was originally constructed in the 4th century, had other reconstructions, and what we see today was completed in 1969.

I’m standing near the church and you can see the towering cupola of the Basilica which stands over the cave that tradition holds to be the home of the Virgin Mary.

This is the front of the church. It’s exceptionally large and very nice.

There was a Mass being said when we went inside the church but it was not well attended.

We went down below the level in the above photo to this level. This church, like much of Israel, was built on layers of earlier civilizations. There were two altars on this level. You see the first one in the center of the photo.

This is in the back of the previous photo. This sunken grotto is the traditional home where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived while in Nazareth. An altar is inside the cave.