The Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the virgin is located in the Muslim quarter near the Lion's gate. According to Christian tradition, this was the house of the righteous Joachim and Anna, parents of the virgin Mary.

The canonical Gospels say nothing about the birth of the blessed virgin. Detailed information about the event can only be found in the Protevangelium of James, written in the second century. The pious couple from Jerusalem, Joachim and Anna, had no children. Childlessness among the Jews in those days meant that God did not bless this couple. The head of the family was denied the right to be the first to offer sacrifice to God: "you Cannot bring the gifts to the first, for you have not made seed in Israel". Anna even rebuked the servant: "the Lord had closed your womb". But a grieving woman, an angel appeared and announced that the Lord answered her prayers, she will conceive and bear, and her seed, "will be the talk of the world." Anna gave birth to a girl who had a great destiny.

The temple is located at the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Anne, in a building built in 1907. Above the entrance it says in English: "the Place of Nativity of the virgin". On the plaques-signs the same inscription in Russian. A small Church with a rich iconostasis, located on the first floor. Stone steps are steep stairs lead down to the crypt: here, according to Orthodox tradition, has preserved the upper room, in which was born of the virgin Mary. The walls of a room-the caves are composed of coarse Jerusalem stone, the place of the Nativity of the blessed virgin Mary marked by a cross in the ancient mosaic floor. At the icon of Holy righteous Joachim and Anna many childless pilgrims leave notes with prayers for the renewal of nature.

It is believed, however, that the very wealthy household of Joachim and Anna was captured and the territory of the nearby Catholic Church of St. Anne, erected in the times of the crusaders. Catholic tradition says that the place of the Nativity of the virgin is in the local crypt. The contradictions between the Orthodox and Catholic traditions hardly significant: the distance between the two temples – only seventy meters, and the distance of two thousand years is not absolutely accurately indicate the precise point where there was a great event.