Marketplace at Bethlehem, c.1900-1920

The image depicts the market in Manger Square in Bethlehem with the Mosque of Omar visible in the background. On Saturdays, Manger Square would be flooded with people from all over the surrounding villages and countryside, come to buy and sell produce.

In the 1920s, the British Mandate regime created the Bethlehem Municipal Market between the Farahiyyeh and Najajreh quarters of Bethlehem, thus clearing Manger Square of its traditional market. This photograph is the cropped version of the original. This image exists as part of the Bethlehem People and Places collection within the Library of Congress project of the Planet Bethlehem Archive.