BETHLEHEM

means the 1 house of bread.' It was the birthplace of Jesus and of King David. It is now an unwailed village of white stone houses, about six miles south of Jerusalem. The population is wholly Christian. The Convent of the Nativity was built by the Empre Helena, but destroyed, and then rebuilt probably by the Crusaders. Within it is the Church of the Nativity, built like a cro , and below which is a crypt where the child Tesus is said to have been bom. The manger is in a low rece cut in the rock.