The Arab reoccupation of Palestine (1187) made the grotto inaccessible to Christians, who for a long time—from the 14th to the 19th century—were also excluded from the enclosure; this prohibition has been maintained up to the present day. Thus it is now impossible to know exactly the form of the grotto and its present condition.
BIBL.: L. Heidet, s. V. in DB, IV, cols. 520-31; L.-H. Vincent, E. Mackay, F.-M. Abel, Hebron, Paris 1923.