In front of this fortress extends a handsome well-paved area.

So soon as we have passed through the little gate, we find ourselves in the courtyard, or rather in the nave of the church, which is unfortunately more than half destroyed, but must once have been eminent both for its size and beauty.

Some traces of mosaic can still be detected on the walls.

Two rows of high handsome pillars, forty-eight in number, intersect the interior; and the beam-work, said to be of cedar-wood from Lebanon, looks almost new.

Beneath the high altar of this great church is the grotto in which Christ was born.