Last stop before the hotel today was the Church of the Annunciation and St Joseph’s Church in old-city Nazareth. This would have been Jesus’ home town area. The Church of the Annunciation is in honor of where Mary lived at the time the angel came to visit her to let her know that she had been chosen to be Jesus’ mother. Under the church is a cave system where the people lived during that time, about 200 people. The place that is thought to be Mary’s home is preserved and honored as a place of worship. The place where Joseph is thought to have lived is a long stone’s-throw away, also in caves under a church honoring him.
We started with a devotion in front of the church which was built in the 1960s. There are ornate mosaic tile pictures from all kinds of countries in the world depicting the Virgin Mary. Very cool. Not a great picture of the church, but I love that kid….
Here is a much better picture of the front of the church. Hard to take it all in…so much detail. Under the archway is this door…
Depicting events of Jesus’ life. Very cool. Also under there was this door leading to another part of the church. It depicts Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac on the bottom. The guy is our tour guide, Mike. Cool guy! Knowledgeable, and giving us a great tour. And I have to give a shout out to our driver Hasim…dude can thread a tour bus through the eye of a needle if need be, for real!!
So this is the area they have cordoned off…we couldn’t go in…where it is historically accepted as Mary’s home, in this cave. I mean to tell you, I would LOVE to go in there and check that out. Man, was it neat. Just outside of this area was some decoration on the rock from the period…
And above it was this…
Neat, right? There are many more pictures I took, I’m just trying to tell the story and post a few here, but there was lots more neat stuff to see.
This was an area we could look down into…this would be the roof area of the caves underneath where the people lived…if I have it right. The holes would be to collect rain water etc. I would have loved to go down there and walk around. NOPE.
Evan liked this part too, he was trying to get pictures of as much as he could. Don’t blame him, it was neat.
Between Mary’s home and Joseph’s home is a convent for Franciscan nuns. A short way up the hill is Joseph’s home, and now church honoring him, too.
Copper statue of Joseph. Where people touch his knees, the green wears off. Wait, might be bronze. Not sure now…took in a lot of information today!
On the side of St Joseph’s church. This area is where Jesus lived when he was in Nazareth, y’all. Yep.
What I picked to show from the pictures I took from under the church…steps down into the caves where it is thought Joseph lived. Again, wish we coulda gone down there. Whoa was it cool.
This shows about how far Joseph’s church/home is away from Mary’s. That gray dome is Mary’s home, and I’m standing in front of Joseph’s, pretty much. 
Here is a better side view of the Church of the Annunciation.
After that, we left for the hotel. We drove through Cana, yep, of the miracle, but didn’t stop, nothing there to see…
Then on our way, we caught our first glimpse of the Sea of Galilee…
Tomorrow we will be on it, in a boat! Lots of other cool things to see tomorrow…it’s getting very late here…time to go to bed. Come back tomorrow for more cool stuff to see! Thanks for reading!