Bethlehem and Jerusalem on a minivan

Bethlehem is the Temple of the Nativity.

Bethlehem is a holy city for Christianity, which is the second most important city after Jerusalem, here, according to the Gospel, Jesus Christ was born. King David was also born in Bethlehem.

Jerusalem is the Highland of the Last Supper. King David's tomb. Cardo. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Wailing Wall.

The main attraction of Bethlehem is the Cave of Nativity, the greatest Christian shrine where Jesus Christ was born.

Above the cave is built the Church of the Nativity of Christ, which is located on the Manger Square and from the outside looks more like a fortress than a temple.

The basilica was built in 326.

The first temple on the site of Christmas was built by St. Queen Helena. It was able to determine the temple of Adonis, arranged by the Romans in the middle of the second century - under the emperor Hadrian in Judea there was an uprising, after the suppression of which the ruler intended to destroy the very memory of the Kingdom of Judea. Jerusalem was almost completely destroyed and renamed Elia Capitolina; the province of Judea was called "Palestine" after the pagan people who came here from Egypt in the XII century BC, with whom the ancient Jews fought for several centuries; on the site of the shrines of Christians, whom the pagans perceived as a Jewish sect, altars were installed to the Roman gods.

The temple, built by Queen Helena, suffered in 529 (from it remained mosaic floors). The current building was rebuilt in the VI-VII centuries, and it is the only Christian temple in the Holy Land, preserved intact from the Muslim period.

The main shrine of the temple is the cave of the Nativity of Christ, located under the central aisle. Even Protestants, who have no traditions of icon worship or pilgrimage, with deep feeling approach the silver star, which marked the birthplace of the Savior.

Here, in the cave, there is a part of the manger covered with marble, in which the Mother of God put the Child of Christ. The inner part of the nursery, five tablets of olive wood, since the VII century are in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Near the southern entrance to the Nativity Cave (left of the central iconostasis) is the miraculous Bethlehem Icon of the Mother of God. The image is different in that the Virgin Mary smiles on it.

The cost of the tour does not include:

• feeding
• Entrance tickets.

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is the Temple of the Nativity.

Jerusalem is the Highland of the Last Supper. King David's tomb. Cardo. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Wailing Wall.