Pilgrimage Sites in Holy Land

The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem stands over a grotto venerated as the birthplace of Christ since the second century — among the earliest sites in Christianity to be continuously identified. At Nazareth, pilgrims come to the place of the Annunciation, where Gabriel told Mary she would bear the Son of God, and to the town where Jesus grew up. Jerusalem holds the sites of the crucifixion and the resurrection, and of Pentecost, where the Church was born.

Two further destinations widen the picture. Mount Carmel above Haifa holds Elijah's Cave and the world headquarters of the Carmelite Order, founded there by hermits in the 12th century. Sepphoris, the Herodian capital of Galilee close to Nazareth, opens a window onto the urban world of Jesus' youth and honours the traditions surrounding Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary.