Nazareth has been of interest to pilgrims over the centuries, not to mention at least one muralist.  When it was completed in 1969, the massive two-story basilica was the largest church in the Middle East.  Upon entry to the grounds, a statue of a fourteen-year-old Mary greets you.  Then surrounding the walls of the grounds and the interior of the basilica are portraits of Mary and Jesus, donated from countries around the world.  Most of the portraits were unique mosaics.  The actual church building has a lower grotto area as well as two floors above it, each a separate church.  There’s enough reinforced concrete in the construction to (hopefully) protect the location from any earthquake.

The actual grounds of the Church of the Annunciation have been revered for centuries.  It stands over a cave grotto that tradition holds to have been where Mary lived.  The lower level of the church enshrines that little cave.  On both sides of the cave are remnant walls of earlier churches.  It is thought that the first church built over the site was in 427 by the deacon of Jerusalem.  Later, Crusaders to the Holy Land built a church over its ruins.  That basilica was destroyed along with the Crusader kingdom in 1187.  Franciscans were the next to build on the site in the 1800s. 

Before the Church of the Annunciation was built, archaeologist explored the area.  Excavations revealed the remains of the ancient village of Nazareth with other cave dwellings, silos, and cisterns.  In the discovery of a church or synagogue pre-dating the 427 building, etched onto the base of a pillar were the Latin words XE MAPIA.  If you don’t speak Latin, that means HAIL MARY, the very words that the angel Gabriel used to greet the young girl.