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Ancient Bath House of Nazareth

Buildings and structures in NazarethFormer public bathsPublic baths in the Arab world

The Ancient Bath House of Nazareth was discovered in the late 1990s by Elias and Martina Shama during renovations inside their shop near Mary's Well in Nazareth. Archaeologists that examined the bath house have assigned its construction to various periods, the oldest of these being the Greek or Roman period in Palestine.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ancient Bath House of Nazareth (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Ancient Bath House of Nazareth
Old City - 6089, Nazareth

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N 32.70625 ° E 35.301527777778 °
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מעיין מרים

Old City - 6089
1756103 Nazareth
North District, Israel
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Mary's Well
Mary's Well

Mary's Well (Arabic: عين العذراء, ʿAin il- ʿadhrāʾ or "The spring of the Virgin Mary") is reputed to be located at the site where, according to one Christian tradition associated with the apocryphal Gospel of James, Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, mother of Jesus and announced that she would bear the Son of God – an event known as the Annunciation. It has been further associated in the past with episodes from another apocryphal infancy gospel, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.Found just below the Greek Orthodox Church of St Gabriel in modern-day Nazareth, dedicated to the Annunciation, the well was until recently fed by an aqueduct connected to a spring, and served for centuries as a local watering hole for the Palestinian villagers. Rebuilt twice in the 20th century, once in 1967 and once in 2000, the current structure is a symbolic representation of the one that was once in use. According to Fu'ad Farah, "the Orthodox community supported replacing the structure, because then pilgrims and tourists could note that because of its newness it was not a traditional site", the traditional site he meant being the "spring" inside the Orthodox church.Two, maybe even three sites are popularly known as Mary's Well – the spring underneath the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, the well structure in the plaza 50 yards to the south of it, and a presumed spring underneath the Basilica of the Annunciation.This article primarily describes the well structure in the plaza, which has been dry since the 1990s. Originally outside the urban center of Nazareth, it was a popular square and meeting place for the Palestinian community in Nazareth until the Nakba, and has become a symbol of the city of Nazareth.

Nazareth
Nazareth

Nazareth ( NAZ-ər-əth; Arabic: النَّاصِرَة, an-Nāṣira; Hebrew: נָצְרַת, Nāṣəraṯ; Syriac: ܢܨܪܬ, Naṣrath) is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In 2021 its population was 77,925. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian.Findings unearthed in the neighboring Qafzeh Cave show that the area around Nazareth was populated in the prehistoric period. Nazareth was a Jewish village during the Roman and Byzantine periods and is described in the New Testament as the childhood home of Jesus. It became an important city during the Crusades after Tancred established it as the capital of the Principality of Galilee. The city declined under Mamluk rule, and following the Ottoman conquest, the city's Christian residents were expelled, only to return once Fakhr ad-Dīn II granted them permission to do so. In the 18th century, Zahir al-Umar transformed Nazareth into a large town by encouraging immigration to it. The city grew steadily during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when European powers invested in the construction of churches, monasteries, educational and health facilities. Since late antiquity, Nazareth has been a center of Christian pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events. The Church of the Annunciation is considered one of the largest Christian sites of worship in the Middle East. It contains the Grotto of the Annunciation, where, according to Catholic tradition, angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would conceive and bear Jesus. According to Greek Orthodox belief, the same event took place at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, also known as Church of Saint Gabriel. Other important churches in Nazareth include the Synagogue Church, St. Joseph's Church, the Mensa Christi Church, and the Basilica of Jesus the Adolescent.As the largest Arab city in Israel, Nazareth is today a cultural, political, religious, economic and commercial center of the Arab citizens of Israel, and became also a center of Arab and Palestinian nationalism.

Battle of Nazareth
Battle of Nazareth

The Battle of Nazareth began on 20 September 1918, during the Battle of Sharon, which together with the Battle of Nablus formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought during the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the cavalry phase of the Battle of Sharon the Desert Mounted Corps rode to the Esdraelon Plain (also known as the Jezreel Valley and the plain of Armageddon) 40 and 50 miles (64 and 80 km) behind the front line in the Judean Hills. At Nazareth on the plain, the 13th Cavalry Brigade of the 5th Cavalry Division attempted to capture the town and the headquarters of the Yildirim Army Group which was eventually captured the following day after the garrison had withdrawn. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attack on Nazareth was made possible by the British Empire infantry attack on 19 September which began the Battle of Sharon. The EEF infantry attacked along an almost continuous front from the Mediterranean Sea, across the Plain of Sharon and into the Judean Hills. The XXI Corps's British Indian Army infantry captured Tulkarm and the headquarters of the Ottoman Eighth Army. During the course of this attack, the infantry created a gap in the Ottoman front line defences through which the Desert Mounted Corps rode northwards to begin the cavalry phase of the battle. Subsequently, the infantry also captured Tabsor, Et Tire and Arara to outflank the Eighth Army. Meanwhile, the Desert Mounted Corps advanced to capture the communications hubs of Afulah, Beisan and Jenin on 20 September, cutting the main Ottoman withdrawal routes along their lines of supply and communications. The 5th Cavalry Division had been assigned the task of capturing Nazareth, which was the site of the General Headquarters of the Central Powers' Yildirim Army Group, on 20 September. However, due to the rough and narrow Shushu Pass over the Mount Carmel Range, they were forced to leave behind one brigade and the divisional artillery. Instead of both the 13th and 14th Cavalry Brigades advancing across the Esdrealon Plain to capture the Nazareth, the 14th Cavalry Brigade went directly to Afulah, the objective of the 4th Cavalry Division. By the time the 13th Cavalry Brigade attacked Nazareth, it had been reduced to two squadrons and was not strong enough to capture the Yilderim Army Group headquarters and secure the town. During the attack the German commander of the Yildirim Army Group, Generalleutnant (Major General) Otto Liman von Sanders and his senior staff officers escaped. The following day, after the Ottoman garrison retreated, Nazareth was occupied by the 13th Cavalry Brigade.