As an Israel tour operator for nearly 30 years, Christian pilgrimage tours, especially for church groups, is a top market for Ya’lla Tours USA.
This post highlights Nazareth as one of the important sites in a Christian tour of Israel.
Nazareth is a holy city for Christians and visits to Nazareth are included in most of our general interest Israel programs and in all of our Christian pilgrimage programs in Israel.
In the first century, Nazareth was a backwater village with fewer than 500 residents. Today it is a metropolitan area of over 200,000. Roughly 60% of the residents are Israeli Arab (both Christian and Muslim) and about 40% are Israeli Jews. Nazareth is located in the heart of Israel’s northern Galilee region.
Nazareth was the home of Mary the mother of Jesus and it was there that the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38). She was told to name the child Jesus, which means “God saves” in Hebrew. Jesus spent most of his life in Nazareth, until he began his ministry at age 30 and moved to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee.
Things to see in Nazareth:
In the Byzantine era, the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation was built on the site believed to be the home of Mary and Joseph. The modern church was completed in 1969 on the same site and incorporates remains of Byzantine and Crusader era churches. A cave in the lower level is traditionally believed to be where Gabriel appeared to Mary. Beautiful mosaics of Mary from many countries are displayed throughout the building.
In the same area, St. Joseph’s Church is built on the traditional site of Joseph’s carpentry workshop, sometimes called Joseph’s Grotto.
According to Greek Orthodox tradition, the Annunciation took place at a spring frequented by Mary. Another church has stood on that site, right over the spring, since Byzantine times – the Church of St. Gabriel. Mary’s Well is nearby.
About 1 1/2 miles outside of Nazareth is Mt. Precipice, where the people of Nazareth attempted to throw Jesus off the mountain after he suggested that he was the fulfillment of a prophecy of Isaiah in a sermon (Luke 4:29-30).
In the undeveloped fields outside of the city, Nazareth Village is a restored 1st-century farm and re-created village, where visitors can observe and participate in the local way of life of 2,000 years ago.
Click to see tours to Nazareth from Ya’lla Tours USA, Israel tour operator since 1993.
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