December 22, 2009, Nazareth, Israel

In Nazareth remains of a two thousand year old building are found, in which Virgin Mary and her son Jesus Christ may have lived. It is located near the Church of the Annunciation built above a cavern where the Holy Virgin was born. The discovery was made by accident when builders cleared up a site for a new Christian center.

According to Yardena Alexandra who was in charge of the excavations the found building consists of two rooms and an inner yard. It is the first case of finding a construction of such a big size in Nazareth that dates back to the times of Jesus Christ. Until now only items from burial caverns dating to those times have been found.

Scientists do not have any proves right now that it is the Holy Family that lived in that building. It is known that they lived in Nazareth, but the Scriptures do not indicate where exactly. As Alexandra explained to the reporters, jars of clay found on the spot are typical to living of a poor family of those times.

It is impossible to say whether the house belonged to the parents of Christ — carpenter Joseph and Mary; however, it at least looks like a carpenter’s dwelling place. As the overseer of the excavations added, if Jesus did not live in that very house, he definitely had been nearby it. Of all the places related to the Holy Family in Nazareth there are the Annunciation Grotto, above which the biggest in the Middle East Catholic Church of the Annunciation is built and the Orthodox Archangel Gabriel’s Church, and the Saint Spring over the Virgin Mary’s Spring.

Apart from that in the vicinities of Nazareth there are Mount Tabor (where transfiguration of the Lord occurred) and Kafr Kanna village where, according to the Bible Christ worked his first miracle by turning water into wine at a wedding.