This church, built in the 1960s on the site of previous churches, occupies the whole footprint of biblical Nazareth, which in Jesus' day was home to probably less than 400 people:
Since it's footprint covers biblical Nazareth, wherever Jesus lived, and probably wherever the Annunciation occurred, this church marks the spot! We read Luke 1:26-38 before entering the church.
The main altar sits before an excavated house (identified as the home of Mary and Joseph for centuries):
And next to that altar is the remains of the apse from the Byzantine church that once marked this spot:
And running beside it is a wall from the Crusader church that also once stood here:
Not only is this the largest church in the region but it is certainly one of the most beautiful:
After Nazareth, our next stop was just a short distance, over the next ridge: Cana. Though this is not the biblical Cana (that town was utterly destroyed in the rebellion of 70 A.D.), it is nearby. We read John 2:1-11 before entering the church that commemorates the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine:
The lower level of this church displays a huge ancient stone water jar, of the kind mentioned in John 2:
Soon after leaving Cana, we were driving through the Turan Valley, with fertile fields lining either side of the road. We read (without stopping) Matthew 12:1-8. We also read Matthew 5:14-16 as we spotted Safed in the distance, possibly the city that Jesus evoked when he spoke of his followers as a "city on a hill."
Our next stop would be the Lake Kinnereth...the Sea of Galilee!
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