In the hill country of Judah

Ein Karem, revered as the birth place of John the Baptist and place of the visitation. There is a church of John the Baptist and two or three churches built over the places each faith consideres to be the place Mary met with Elizabeth, her cousin!  There is also Mary's well - another possible contender for the title of meeting place. In fact it is possibly the place, given that there is a spring and it's on the valley floor. The other churches are halfway up high hills!

Mary and Elizabeth meet

Inside the grotto of the Church of the Visitation

Mosaic on the exterior

Ein Karem

We celebrated Mass here - Fr John, a Franciscan from San Francisco

Church of John the Baptist, Ein Karem

A very Spanish Style

This is very familiar from Latin America!

The spot where John was born...

The grotto where John was born

Happy pilgrims

Detail of Elizabeth

Mary's Well

Houses in Ein Karem. Originally belonging to Christian Arabs who fled during the 1948 war (there was a massacre nearby) now Jewish houses

The valley

Mary's Well - formally a mosque. The Moslems venerate Mary - while we were there several Moslems came to wash in the water.

Almond blossoms