Bethlehem - The Milk Grotto

 The Milk Grotto (officially Magharet Sitti Mariam, "Grotto of the Lady Mary") is an irregular grotto hollowed out of the soft white rock. This grotto, with a Franciscan chapel built above it, is considered sacred because  according to the  tradition as Mary and Joseph were fleeing Herod's soldiers on their way to Egypt, they took refuge in this cave for Mary to nurse the baby Jesus. While nursing  Jesus a drop of milk fell on the stone and turned it white, at the same time. turning the cave into one of the holy places to Christianity  and  a pilgrim site to this days.
The irregularly shaped grotto is hollowed out of the soft white rock. A church was built here by the 5th century, and mosaic fragments on the terrace of the grotto, with geometrical motifs and crosses, are thought to belong to this time.