Bethlehem was one of the most symbolically charged places Noel encountered while serving in the Middle East. By the early 1940s, it was a densely built hill town just south of Jerusalem, its pale limestone houses stacked tightly along ridges and slopes. Unlike Nazareth, which spread across open hills, Bethlehem felt compressed and enclosed, with narrow streets funneling movement toward its central religious sites.
The town had a long-established Christian majority, alongside Muslim families, and its economy was closely tied to pilgrimage. Olive-wood carving workshops, small souvenir stalls, and family-run guesthouses lined the streets leading to the Church of the Nativity. Even during wartime, Bethlehem remained a destination for pilgrims and visiting servicemen, and Allied uniforms were a familiar sight among local residents and clergy.
For Noel, arriving in Bethlehem meant stepping into a place that carried immense symbolic weight but was also unmistakably lived-in. Children, shopkeepers, monks, soldiers, and pilgrims all shared the same confined spaces. His photographs suggest an interest not only in the major holy sites, but also in how ordinary life unfolded around them – people moving through streets worn smooth by centuries of use, and religious landmarks standing at the centre of daily routines rather than apart from them.
Bethlehem in the 1940s was under British Mandate rule, and wartime restrictions affected travel, trade, and access to religious sites. Yet the town continued to function as a pilgrimage centre, particularly for Christians stationed in the region who took leave to visit places that had previously existed only in scripture and tradition. For a New Zealand soldier far from home, standing in Bethlehem would have been both familiar through story and startlingly real.
Sites appearing in Noel’s photographs
Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity occupies a site identified as Christ’s birthplace since the fourth century, when Constantine ordered the construction of the first basilica. Rebuilt under Justinian in the sixth century, the structure Noel entered had survived successive periods of conquest and repair. Its low entrance, reduced during Ottoman rule to deter theft and mounted entry, enforced a posture of submission that reflected centuries of external control over the site. Inside, the fabric of the building recorded continuous use: worn paving stones, smoke-darkened columns, and patched masonry shaped by the shared-and often contested-custodianship of multiple Christian denominations.
The Grotto of the Nativity
The Grotto of the Nativity, beneath the church, was the earliest focus of veneration, formalised as a sacred space by the fourth century around a natural cave. Marked by silver stars and liturgical fittings added over centuries, it represented the physical anchor of the Nativity tradition and was the location of the Manger. By the mid-twentieth century, including during World War Two, access was tightly regulated to manage both pilgrimage and denominational control, with visitors moving through in sequence.
Rachel’s Tomb
Rachel’s Tomb, originally located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, has been identified since at least the early medieval period as the burial site of the matriarch Rachel. By the Ottoman era, it had been enclosed within a small stone structure, combining elements of fortress and shrine, reflecting both its religious significance and the practical need to protect it from occasional attacks or pilgrimage disputes. Pilgrims by the mid-twentieth century encountered a heavily ritualised space, with the tomb itself separated from visitors by barriers and gates.