I visit Nazareth

So our work schedules are getting a little crazy here. The group of guys that I site see with just returned from work at 6am so they'll be sleeping most of the day. So I figure I'll go check out Nazareth which on the map is PLO controlled but in Israel.

It took ~1.5 hrs to get there and the drive was beautiful once I got close. The valley just before Nazareth was green and full of crops and then you start to go up the mountain, through a tunnel, and all of a sudden a city appears. What was once a quiet town where Jesus spent his childhood is now one noisy of a place! Automobile horns aren't just honked. They're held down for minutes! Plus the Muslims were praying over the town loud speaker which didn't help. Oh by the way Nazareth is ~75% Muslim and I think ~25% Christian. Anyways so I park the car for 20 NIS and head for the Basilica of the Annunciation. This is where it is believed that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would the mother of Christ.

So I'm walking up the street towards the church entrance and the Muslim voice is just getting louder and louder plus now I hear church bells in addition to the horns I talked about earlier. I look up at the church and I see maybe 5 bells going off which is kind of cool. For some reason Notre Dame came to mind and then I glanced a bit to the left and saw the loud speaker. It's like they turned an air raid speaker into a Muslim preaching loud speaker.

I enter the courtyard outside the church and the walls are covered with mosaics, pictures,...etc, of Mary/Madonna. Countries donated these art pieces as interpretations of how they view Mary/Madonna. My mother-in-law if Filipino so I took this for her.

The 1st floor of the Basilica is the grotto. It's dark with most of the light coming from grotto behind the altar. Apparently the lily or maybe an upside down lily is a symbol for Mary and the churches architecture shows this all over.

Upstairs is another church with a hole in the center of the room where you can see down to the grotto level. I believe this is where mass is held most of the time. Here I found more Mary/Madonna art with interesting pieces from Japan and the USA.

Outside and just pass the side courtyard is another small church called St. Joesph's. There's also a downstairs level to this church and it smelled a bit musty which kind of got me thinking that maybe people shouldn't be going down here or that maybe people haven't been down here in a while. So I go. I wasn't sure what the rooms were for because it looked like the center was a place for prayer but the sides had what looked like tombs and at the rear of the level was an ancient baptismal font. It is said that this is the location of Joesph's workshop.