Without question, one of the most visited sites in all of the Holy Land is the Church of the Nativity. In fact, one can wait hours in line to visit a spot claimed to be the very spot where the baby Jesus was born. But of course, we don’t really know where that is, other than in Bethlehem, and this church doesn’t date back before the fourth century A.D. Nevertheless, as a place to remember that Jesus was born somewhere in Bethlehem, it serves its purpose. Here is the entrance way, and I must say they have begun to do a much better job of cleaning up this church and making it appealing than even two years ago.
One thing one learns is that people were shorter on average in antiquity, but in fact it is also true that the floor in the church and the pediment outside is higher than in antiquity surely….
The most important part of the church that is ancient, is the ancient flooring from perhaps the 4th-5th century which is kept under cover….
The columns are being cleaned of all the ancient soot, and the wall frescoes being renewed or redone…. This church is shared by various Orthodox traditions, including Armenian Orthodox (which has it owns quarter in Jerusalem) and apparently it has taken them a long time to agree on what renovations to do….
Once one gets below ground what one sees is the following in the grotto….
The star is supposedly the spot where Jesus was born. One has to concentrate on the fact that we are celebrating the facts, not the supposition that we know exactly where it happened. 
Next door, there is a beautiful, well maintained Catholic Church which is much more modern, and there is clear evidence that Jerome’s grotto where he did his scholarly work is underneath this church. There is a statue honoring him in the courtyard… 
After standing in line for hours waiting to see ‘the spot’ we were all famished, and our guide Leah took us to a Tent to eat—- it was great. Here’s Leah and my wife outside the Tent….
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