Nazareth (Hebrew Nazerat, Arabic En-Nasra) is the largest Arab town in Israel and is located on the southern edge of the Galilean uplands, above the Jezreel Plain. Its residents are mostly Christians.
As the place where the Archangel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary and where Jesus spent most of his life, Nazareth has attracted Christian pilgrims for more than fifteen hundred years.
Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, and in pre-Christian times was probably an insignificant village. Excavations from 1955 onwards, however, showed that the hill on which the Church of the Annunciation and St Joseph's Church stand was inhabited from the time of the patriarchs (second millennium BC).
Nazareth (Hebrew Nazerat, Arabic En-Nasra) is the largest Arab town in Israel and is located on the southern edge of the Galilean uplands, above the Jezreel Plain. Its residents are mostly Christians.