north was built in the 17th century over a cave that supposedly was the site of the village’s carpenter shop. Nazareth’s old suq (market), is


where visitors can shop for souvenirs amid a maze of narrow streets, shop stalls, and restaurants. If time allows, we’ll walk through Elbabour, the spice market that occu- pies the old 18th-century community mill. The stone grinders were fi rst turned by horses, then by steam and diesel engines. Until the late 1960s, local farmers


brought their grain here to be pro- cessed. The Greek Orthodox Church


of St. Gabriel is where the Eastern Orthodox tradition has commemo- rated the site of the annunciation since at least the 12th century. Mary’s Well Located just a few


hundred feet south of the church is one of the city’s best-known land- marks. It is probably the place iden- tifi ed in some apocryphal sources, including the Protevangelium of James, as the site of Gabriel’s appear- ance to Mary. The well, which is fed by a nearby


spring (one of the few in the Gali- lee), supplied the village with fresh water as early as the Byzantine peri- od, although it went out of use in the 1990s and now primarily serves as


Nazareth is easily reached by car from many of northern Israel’s cities, including Tiberias and Haifa, or if coming from the south, it is about a two-hour drive from Jerusalem.


a gathering spot for both locals and tourists enjoying the city’s downtown. Nazareth Village is the Galilee’s


answer to Colonial Williamsburg. On a hillside located between Nazareth Hospital and the YMCA, characters in period dress herd goats, thresh wheat, card wool, weave fabric, and crush olives in a reconstructed fi rst- century Jewish village built according to ancient methods. The park provides an opportunity


to test the effi ciency of fi rst-century industries and building techniques while also trying out foods imagined to be like those eaten by Galileans 2,000 years ago. Our next stop is the Synagogue


Church, purported to be the location of the synagogue where Jesus fi rst learned the Torah, although no fi rst- century synagogue has been uncov- ered there. The Gothic revival Church of


Jesus the Adolescent, built on the high hill to the west of Nazareth, is a wonderful spot to overlook the modern city, and then Mount Prec- ipice, which off ers a commanding, panoramic view over the lush Jezreel Valley. Local tradition identifi es this as


the peak where the residents of Naza- reth tried to hurl Jesus to his death (Luke 4:28-30), but he was able to leap to safety onto the peak of nearby Mount Tabor. Nazareth is easily reached by car


from many of northern Israel’s cities, including Tiberias and Haifa, or if coming from the south, it is about a two-hour drive from Jerusalem. Given its central location, Naza-


reth also serves as a wonderful base to tour other archaeological sites in the Galilee and the north, including Sep- phoris, Beth Shearim, and Megiddo, or, with just a little more driving, Beth Shean and sites around the Sea of Galilee to the east.


This article first appeared in the Biblical Archaeology Review.


DECEMBER 2025 | NEWSMAX 61


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