Experience the best of Bethlehem

Bethlehem stands on a ridge of the Judean hills in the West Bank, a few kilometres south of Jerusalem. Its Church of the Nativity, a World Heritage site, was first built in the fourth century over the grotto traditionally held to be the birthplace of Jesus, and rebuilt in the sixth. Visitors enter through the low Door of Humility into a basilica of tall red-stone columns, and a silver star marks the spot in the grotto below.

Manger Square in front of the church also holds the Mosque of Omar and the Franciscan Church of St Catherine. Narrow lanes lead past the Milk Grotto and workshops carving olive wood and mother-of-pearl. East of town, the Shepherds' Fields at Beit Sahour recall the Gospel story, Herodium is a fortress built on an artificial hill by King Herod, and the monastery of Mar Saba stands in a desert gorge.

Palestinian cooking brings maqluba, an upside-down dish of rice and vegetables, musakhan, chicken roasted with sumac on flatbread, hummus, falafel and knafeh, a sweet cheese pastry, with olives, olive oil and thyme from the surrounding hills. The climate is Mediterranean, with hot dry summers and cool, wetter winters, and spring brings wildflowers to the slopes.