Bethlehem - A Holy Place between Walls and Mass Tourism, Palestine (406/418)

Bethlehem - A Holy Place between Walls and Mass Tourism, Palestine (406/418)

Bethlehem lies on the ancient road from Jerusalem to Hebron. Like the monasteries, convents and churches around the Grotto of the Nativity, this "pilgrim road" was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Despite the fact that millions make their way to these holy sites every year, the road there is largely ignored. But the houses to the right and left of the ancient cobbles hide surprises and secrets.

Bethlehem is a town where Muslims and Christians live peacefully side by side. Trying to capture the sacredness of the places and the devotion of the pilgrims with a camera is rarely successful. Likewise the moment during the mass of the Greek Orthodox Christians when the King's Gate to the inner sanctum is opened briefly is hard to describe. As is the glimpse behind the walls of an Armenian monastery, where the young monks allow us quite openly to experience a part of their life.

The contradictions at the birth place of Jesus Christ often come upon the visitor unexpectedly. There is hardly a place in the world where the call of the muezzin ringing out only one hundred and fifty meters from the churches is louder. But then again there are Muslims pausing in great reverence before the altar in the grotto of the Nativity. Jesus is one of the most important prophets in Islam. Perhaps it is precisely these conflicting priorities that have protected and preserved the oldest church in the world from destruction for over one and a half millennia.