The Coenaculum (the “Upper Room”) – a 14th-century hall in a small, two-storey structure within a larger complex of buildings on the summit of Mount Zion – commemorates the place where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. It is also associated with an earlier, at least 4th-century tradition that this was the place (or at least the vicinity) where the disciples gathered with the Virgin Mary and others of the community after the death of Jesus (Acts1:14) – and where they experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
Hagia Maria Sion Abbey on Mt. Zion (formerly known as the Dormition Abbey) was consecrated in 1910. It was built on part of the site of the former Byzantine basilica of Hagia Sion and a later Crusader church, St. Mary of Mount Zion. A shrine in the crypt is dedicated to the Dormition.
The Tomb of the Virgin (Orthodox Church) is located at the foot of the Mount Olives in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, an arm of the Kidron Valley, adjacent to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations.
In Christian tradition, the birthplace of St. John the Baptist, and the place where his parents Zachariah and Elizabeth resided . The New Testament tells of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth while they both were pregnant (Luke 2:39-56). Several sites within the village are associated with that visit.
Mary's Spring, a spring and fountain at the center of the ancient village. According to one tradition, this was a place where Mary and Elizabeth met, and where Mary drank (consequently the spring became a place of Christian pilgrimage).
Church of the Visitation – traditional site of the home of Mary's cousin Elizabeth and her husband, Zacharias (the parents of St. John the Baptist).
Church of St. John the Baptist marking the traditional birthplace of St. John the Baptist.
The Basilica of the Nativity, one of the earliest and most important of all Christian ecclesiastical buildings, enshrines the cave believed to be the place where Jesus was born (Luke 2:7).
The Milk Grotto located in the crypt of a small Franciscan chapel, celebrates the tradition that the cave was used as a place of refuge by the Holy Family before their flight into Egypt.
* Under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Visiting the site may require special arrangements, including coordination for transportation and guides.
The village of Abu Ghosh sits on the site of the biblical Qiryat Ye'arim, where the Ark of the Covenant rested for twenty years before it was returned to Jerusalem (1 Samuel 6: 21, 7:1-2). The hilltop Church of Notre Dame de l'Arche de l'Alliance (Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant, built in 1924) commemorates that event.
The Catholic shrine at Deir Rafat Monastery (west of Beit Shemesh and Kibbutz Tzora') was established in the 1930s by the then Latin Patriarch, Msgr. Louis Barlasina. The shrine is dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her role as Queen of Nations and protector of the Holy Land.