11.   Israel is preparing to play host to a record number of Christian pilgrims who will come to celebrate the millennium in the Holy Land.

12.   Israel tolerates Christian worship and depends on Christian pilgrims for tourism, but proselytizing is banned.

13.   On Thursday night, the first of thousands of Christian pilgrims will find their way to this town about six miles from the old city of Jerusalem.

14.   Officially, though, Israelis seem both ambivalent and sometimes clueless hosts to the Christian pilgrims that are staying in their hotels.

15.   One thousand years later, the birth of Jesus cemented Bethlehem as a site for Christian pilgrims.

16.   The Israeli authorities are courting Christian pilgrims to celebrate the millennium here, but some experts on the millennium have warned them that they could be playing with fire.

17.   The Pope can grant a plenary, or complete indulgence, and will grant a great many to Christian pilgrims who visit Rome this year.

18.   There are plans for hotels, a visitors center, a John the Baptist Research Center, and baptismal pools for the ritual anointing of Christian pilgrims.

19.   A group of Romanians posing as Christian pilgrims was turned away from Israel when Interior Ministry officials realized they were seeking illegal employment, the ministry said Monday.

20.   Adversaries in the Third Crusade, the two men reached a treaty that gave Christian pilgrims access to Jerusalem and left a crusader kingdom on the Mediterranean coast.