Bethlehem is amongst the oldest cities in the world, one that has been conquered and ruled by Caananites, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, the Mamluks of Egypt, and the Ottomans. In the last century alone, it has been controlled by various parties. The British took Bethlehem during World War I and controlled the city from 1920-1948, and in the wake of the 1948 war between Israel and its neighbors, Jordan annexed Bethlehem and controlled it until the Six Day War in 1967. It was during the Six Day War that Israel took control of Bethlehem, remaining in power over the city until 1995, when, in compliance with the Oslo Peace Accords, control of the city and of the surrounding West Bank was handed over to the Palestinian National Authority. What was it that caused this one small, unassuming settlement to be the focus of so much attention and strife?

The primary reason that Bethlehem is so famous today is the Biblical passages that relate the town as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the oldest continuously used Christian church in the world is the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Like the town itself, the Church of the Nativity has gone through numerous cycles of creation and ruin. First built above the Cave of the Nativity by Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena, in May 339, the church existed for almost two centuries before it was destroyed during the Samarian revolt in 529 CE. The church was later reconstructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 565, and it is this structure that has largely survived to the present day. Today, the Church of the Nativity is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, alongside the pilgrimage route that led between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.