Nof HaGalil

Reineh (Arabic: الرينة; Hebrew: רֵינָה) is an Arab town in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee, between Nazareth and Qana of Galilee, it attained local council status in 1968. In 2021 it had a population of 19,265, the majority of whom are Muslims (85%), with a significant Christian minority (15%).

Ein Mahil (Arabic: عين ماهل; Hebrew: עֵין מָהִל) is an Arab local council in the Northern District of Israel, located about five kilometers north-east of Nazareth. It was declared a local council in 1964. In 2021 it had a population of 13,748, the majority of which are Muslims.

Mashhad (Hebrew: מַשְׁהַד, Arabic: مشهد, Mash-hed transliteration, martyrium) is an Arab town located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northeast of Nazareth in Israel's Northern District. In 2021 it had a population of 8,655, most of whom were Muslims.

Gath-hepher or Gat Hefer (Hebrew: גַּת הַחֵֽפֶר) was a border town in ancient Israel. It was the home of the prophet Jonah. The etymology of the name is literally "wine-press of the digging" and is mentioned twice in the Bible at Joshua 19:13 and 2 Kings 14:25. In Joshua, a copying error has resulted in the form Gittah-hepher.Jerome in Roman Times (Commentary on Jonah) describes the town as "an inconsiderable village" and tells that the tomb of Jonah was nearby. Similarly the medieval geographer Benjamin of Tudela also relates the tomb of Jonah in his travels to the area. Today the site, at Latitude 32° 44' 30" N and Longitude 35° 19' 30" E in the Galilee, is a small set of ruins on a hilltop near the Arab village of el-Meshed five kilometres north of Nazareth and one kilometre from Canna. The supposed tomb of Jonah is still pointed out by locals.

The Battle of Cresson was a small battle between Frankish and Ayyubid forces on 1 May 1187 at the "Spring of the Cresson." While the exact location of the spring is unknown, it is located in the environs of Nazareth. The conflict was a prelude to decisive defeat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin two months later.

The Wedding Church at Cana (Arabic: كنيسة الزفاف في كنا; Hebrew: כנסיית החתונה) or simply Wedding Church, also Franciscan Wedding Church, is a religious building of the Catholic Church located in the central part of the town of Kafr Kanna (Cana), in Lower Galilee, located in northern Israel. It is dedicated to the weddings of Christianity. Its name commemorates the event of the Wedding at Cana from the Gospel of John, thought by some Christians to have taken place on the site, during which Jesus performed his first miracle, by turning water into wine at the request or behest of Mother Mary. The Church is owned by the Custody of the Holy Land, part of the Franciscan order in the Catholic Church. The current church was built circa 1881, and expanded from 1897-1905, following efforts by the Franciscans to acquire the site between 1641 and 1879, when acquisition was completed. Twentieth-century archaeological excavations indicated that, before the current church building, the site housed a Jewish synagogue in the fourth and fifth centuries, and tombs under the rule of the Byzantine Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries.In 1901 the current facade was built, and September 30, 1906, Bishop Angelo Roncalli consecrated the altar. In the second half of the 1990s, the Holy Land began an extensive renovation of the church, completed in 1999.

The St. Bartholomew the Apostle Church (Hebrew: כנסיית בית ברתולומאוס השליח Latin: Ecclesia Sancti Bartholomei Apostoli) is the name given to a Catholic church administered by the Franciscan order in Kafr Kanna in Israel, built in honor of Cana, the place where Scripture says was the hometown of the apostle St. Bartholomew. The church was founded in 1885. Bartholomew is one of the apostles who according to the Bible were present at the miracle of the fish: "Later, by the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus again revealed Himself to the disciples. He made Himself known in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together" (John 21: 1–2) The front of the church features four pillars and a round window above the main doorway. In the center is a Latin inscription: "DOM S NATHANAELIS BARTHOLOMAEI APOSTOLI" (which means The apostle Nathanael Bartholomew). The altar stands on a raised platform, and in front, two pairs of small-sized columns have Corinthian capitals, and a bas-relief depicting the meeting of Nathanael and Philip the Apostle. Nearby is a small cemetery.

The Skhul/Qafzeh hominins or Qafzeh–Skhul early modern humans are hominin fossils discovered in Es-Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel. They are today classified as Homo sapiens, among the earliest of their species in Eurasia. Skhul Cave is on the slopes of Mount Carmel; Qafzeh Cave is a rockshelter near Nazareth in Lower Galilee. The remains found at Es Skhul, together with those found at the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve and Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh, were classified in 1939 by Arthur Keith and Theodore D. McCown as Palaeoanthropus palestinensis, a descendant of Homo heidelbergensis.

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel, also known as the (Greek) Orthodox Church of the Annunciation (Greek: Ορθόδοξος Ναός του Ευαγγελισμού), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Nazareth, Israel. It is one of two claimants to the site of the Annunciation - where angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and announced that she would give birth to Jesus - the other being the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation.Likely first established in Byzantine-era Palaestina Prima, it was rebuilt during the time of the Crusades, and in its current shape in the 18th century under the rule of Zahir al-Umar, the Arab governor of the Galilee.Known colloquially among the Greek Orthodox worshippers of Galilee whom it serves as Kniset el-Rûm, or Church of the Eastern Romans in Levantine Arabic, the church is located over an underground "spring" (actually the outlet of a 17-metre conduit coming from an uphill spring), which according to Eastern Orthodox belief is where the Virgin Mary was drawing water at the time of the Annunciation. Water from the spring still runs inside a side chapel of the church and also fed the adjacent site of Mary's Well, located 150 yards (140 m) away.

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.

The Coptic Church of the Annunciation is a Coptic church in the city of Nazareth, in northern Israel. It is dedicated to the Annunciation; it is not to be confused with the Catholic church of the same name (Basilica of the Annunciation) or the Maronite church in the same city. The Coptic community came to Nazareth late nineteenth century. The Church of the Annunciation was built in 1952 on the initiative of then Patriarch Basil. All construction work has been done voluntarily by members of the local Coptic community. The church is surrounded by a stone wall with a door that allows entry into the inner courtyard. Above the door is a crucifix. The temple is a two-story building. The façade has on its sides two square towers (three floors) with red roofs. Visiting the church is possible with an appointment.

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.