Monthly Archives: November 2011

Perched on a hill at the edge of the wilderness of Judah, only 5 km south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem children’s home was the biblical King David. This is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and is the main Christian place of worship since the church building “Nativity” in the fourth century, “AD. The city is almost monastic center for so long. In the fifth century” AD, the monastery of St. Jerome, built with local rabbis translated from the original Old Testament Hebrew Vulgate, the standard Latin translation of the Bible used by Roman Catholic Church in Latin. Bethlehem thrived until Crusader times, but after centuries witnessed a large decline in the population turned to the war in 1948 with the arrival of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

Since 1995, Bethlehem was under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, who started a program of economic reconstruction and tourism. Despite the large number of pilgrims and chaotic urban growth, Bethlehem retains the original atmosphere, especially in the central area around the Manger Square, and just west of Souk. Souvenir shops are full of religious kitsch items, but also scenes carved from olive wood crèches, which were made ​​by craftsmen for centuries. None of the visitors should not miss the ancient Church of the Nativity in Manger Square and other major sites worth visiting.