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| A fresco of the Holy Family in the Church of the Nativity. |
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| Haifa as seen from Mt Carmel. Some of the decommissioned vessels of the Israeli Navy are on display. |
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| Mt Carmel is a 1500-ft limestone mountain which impeded armies and merchants traveling to and from the Jezreel Valley in days of old. Presently, the Maris Stella (Star of the Sea - a term used to address Our Lady) Church and Monastery is located there. Mt Carmel is also noted in the Bible (1st Book of the Kings) as the place where the Prophet Elijah met and killed the 400 or so prophets of Baal whom King Ahab had engaged because of his marriage to foreign wives. |
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| Caesarea where St Paul was held imprisoned by the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate before being killed. It's no longer a town but preserved for visitors who want to know about the Roman connection in Biblical times. |
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| Church of the Shepherd's Field which was closed after we had celebrated Mass in the Shepherd's Field nearby. |
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| Walking to enter the walled-up Jerusalem (Old City). Traffic is not heavy. |
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| On the way to the Old City, we passed this Muslim cemetery where our Palestinian guide's family own a plot of land. He informed us that it costs millions of USD to buy a plot there to bury his deceased relatives. |
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| We entered the city by the Lions' Gate. Notice the four lions two of each side of the gate. It's also called St Stephen's Gate as the Saint and first Martyr of the Church was stoned to death in its vicinity for committing blasphemy against the Jewish Temple. There are presently eight gates to enter the Old City and one of them, the Golden Mercy Gate, has been closed during Ottoman times because of Jewish beliefs that in His second Coming, Jesus will enter Jerusalem by that gate . |
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