<< Our Photo Pages >> Mary's Well (Nazareth) - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in Palestine
Submitted by Sunny100 on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 Page Views: 7134
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Mary's Well (Nazareth) Alternative Name: St Mary's Spring, Mary's FountainCountry: Palestine
NOTE: This site is 1.636 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Nazareth
Latitude: 32.697177N Longitude: 35.307826E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Holy Well in Palestine
Mary's Well/spring stands at the side of a road in the lower downtown suburbs of the city of Nazareth in northern Palestine. Today a modern stone wellhouse and dried-up fountain stands over the ancient well where Mary, mother of Jesus, came for water for her family. About 150 metres north is the place of the Annunciation where Gabriel the Archangel visited her and spoke the words of the 'hail Mary'. St Gabriel's Orthodox church stands on that site today.
The present wellhouse was built in the 1960s as a reconstruction of an earlier 19th century building. Rather sadly though no water flows from the conduit and its fountain is no longer. This pre-Christian, ancient spring has stood at this site from time immemorial, but in the early 1st century CE was believed to have been used on a daily basis by Mary, mother of Jesus and wife of Joseph. Since then it has been a place of pilgrimage venerated by the people there and beyond for its great sacredness, and no doubt miraculous powers. Despite being dry the building seems to be well looked after with its rounded archway and stonework in good condition.
Excavations at the well have revealed a possible Byzantine/medieval canal system with tunnels running underground to nearby buildings and in the direction of the church of St Gabriel; the spring is believed to flowed from beneath that church. Also, pottery from the 2nd century CE was found here.
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