JERUSALEM (OSV News) — The discovery of a Byzantine-period church in the northern Negev, with wall art displaying ships, opens a window to the world of Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land 1,500 years ago, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. The archaeologists suggest Christian pilgrims visited the church after landing in the port, leaving their personal mark in the form of ship drawings on its walls. “It is reasonable that their first stop after alighting from the ships in Gaza port was this very church revealed in our excavations south of Rahat. Ships or crosses left by visiting Christian pilgrims as witness to their visit are found also in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher church,” she noted. During Byzantine times Gaza served as a main station for pilgrimages between the sacred sites in the Holy Land and the Sinai Peninsula.

Source: Ethiopian News June 17, 2024 18:49 UTC