Things to do in Nazareth

Landmark · Old City, at the centre of everything

The largest church in the Middle East, built in 1969 over the grotto traditionally held to be Mary's house, with an upper church ringed by Madonna panels donated by Catholic communities from dozens of countries.

Local tip: Go for the upper courtyard mosaics rather than the interior — each country's panel renders the Virgin in its own visual tradition, and comparing the Japanese, Thai and Cameroonian ones is the most interesting twenty minutes in the city. Modest dress is enforced.

Neighborhood · The lanes below and around the basilica

A genuinely working covered market of spice merchants, bakers, butchers and sweet shops threaded through Ottoman stone lanes, with restored mansions turned into guesthouses among them.

Local tip: It is at its most itself on a Saturday morning, when Nazareth is open and the rest of the country is not. Come on a weekday if you want to shop rather than queue.

Nature · Southern edge of the city, above the Nazareth ridge

The escarpment on the city's southern rim, with the whole Jezreel Valley below it and Mount Tabor, Gilboa and on clear days the Golan across the horizon.

Local tip: Drive or walk up at the end of the day. It doubles as the city's amphitheatre — major concerts are staged on the slope — and it is the vantage point that explains why Nazareth sits where it does.

Culture · Northern end of Paulus VI Street

The Orthodox tradition places the Annunciation at the spring rather than at the house, and the church built over it still has water running through the crypt beneath the iconostasis.

Local tip: Visit this and the basilica the same morning. Two churches, five hundred metres apart, telling the same story in incompatible ways is the clearest possible introduction to how this city works.

Food · Old City, near the White Mosque

A century-old grain mill turned spice house, sacks open to the floor, selling za'atar, sumac, freekeh and blends milled on the premises.

Local tip: Ask them to make you a za'atar blend rather than buying a packet. It costs the same and it is the single best thing you can put in a suitcase leaving Nazareth.

Culture · Starts in the Old City

A 65 km marked walking route from Nazareth to Capernaum through the Galilee hills, which begins at an 18th-century Ottoman mansion in the souq now run as a guesthouse.

Local tip: You do not have to walk the whole thing. The first day's stage out to Zippori and back is a good Saturday, and the inn's courtyard is where you will meet everyone else who has just moved here.