6 Best Sights in Lower Galilee, Israel

This quaint church on a hill was built in 1881 where Catholics believe Jesus performed his first miracle (John 2:1–11). The basement has stones and mosaics that bear witness to the ancient building that once stood on this site.

This Greek Orthodox church is built over Nazareth's only natural water source, a spring dubbed Mary's Well. The Greek Orthodox, citing the noncanonical Gospel of St. James, believe it to be the place where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce the coming birth of Jesus.

The ornate church was built in 1750 and contains a stunning carved-wood pulpit and iconostasis (chancel screen) with painted New Testament scenes and silver-haloed saints. The walls have frescoes of figures from the Bible and the Greek Orthodox hagiography. A tiny "well" stands over the running water, and an aluminum cup gives a satisfying plop as it drops in. (The water is clean; the cup is more suspect.) The church is open to visitors in the morning.

This domed Roman Catholic church, run by the Franciscan Sisters, was designed by the famous architect and monk Antonio Barluzzi. Commissioned by Fascist leader Benito Mussolini while he was dictator of Italy, the church was completed in 1937. The windows are inscribed with the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount. The terrace surrounding the church has a superb view of the Sea of Galilee, best enjoyed in the afternoon when the diffused western sun softens the light and heightens colors. Keep in mind this is a pilgrimage site, so dress modestly and respect the silence. The gardens on the Mount of Beatitudes and the church open daily at 8 am, but they close from noon until 2:30 pm.

The German Benedictines dedicated this large, orange-roofed Roman Catholic church in 1936 on the scanty remains of earlier shrines. The site has long been venerated as the "deserted place" (Mark 6:30–6:34) where Jesus miraculously multiplied two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed the crowds. The present airy limestone building with the wooden-truss ceiling was built in the style of a Byzantine basilica to give a fitting context to the beautifully wrought 5th-century mosaic floor depicting the loaves and fishes in front of the altar. The nave is covered with geometric designs, but the front of the aisles is filled with flora and birds and, curiously, a nilometer, a graded column once used to measure the flood level of the Nile for the purpose of assessing that year's collectible taxes.

The austere, black basalt church, just east of the Church of the Multiplication, is built on the water's edge, over a flat rock known as Mensa Christi (the Table of Christ). After his resurrection, the New Testament relates, Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee and presented them a miraculous catch of fish. Three times Jesus asked his disciple Peter if he loved him, and after his reply of "You know that I love you," Jesus commanded him to "feed my sheep" (John 21:17). Some scholars see this affirmation as Peter's atonement for having thrice denied Jesus in Jerusalem. The episode is seen as establishing Peter's "primacy."

As far back as the Byzantine period, Christian tradition identified Mount Tabor as the "high mountain apart" that Jesus ascended with his disciples Peter, James, and John. There, report the Gospels, "he was transfigured before them" (Matthew 17:2) as a radiant white figure, flanked by Moses and Elijah. The altar of the present imposing church, which was consecrated in 1924, represents the tabernacle of Jesus that Peter suggested they build; those of Moses and Elijah appear as small chapels at the back of the church. Step up to the terrace to the right of the church doors for a great view of the Jezreel Valley to the west and south. From a platform on the Byzantine and Crusader ruins to the left of the modern church (watch your step), there is a panorama east and north over the Galilean hills. A nearby Franciscan pilgrim rest stop has refreshments and restrooms.