Christmas nativity scene.

[kepla]

I'm making a model Christmas nativity scene for display over the yuletide season. You know the sort of thing - statues of three shepehrds and three wise men, Mary and Joseph plus baby on hay in a manger.
This time I want to get it 'right' - and there's the problem.
Casting little statues of shepherds and stuff in plaster-of-paris is easy enough and painting them will be fun.
What I'm worried about is the stable.
Does anybody know what stables looked like in Bethlehem about two thousand years ago ?
I guess we are talking about some sort of outbuilding, a bit like a barn, attached to an inn (which was full).
Were they made of wood or bricks, stone or mud ? Would the roof have been flat or sloping ?
I expect it wouldn't have been made from concrete as the Romans only used concrete in large important buildings like palaces, temples and bath-houses.
I know some people construct a nativity scene in just an open-fronted box but I wanted to make this a bit more 'authentic'.
Does anybody know what architecture was like in the Palestine / Israel area two millenia ago ?
Can anyone suggest where I might find out ?
Please help - thanks.
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[Octavius]

This might help a little:

http://www.bethlehem-city.org/Culture/architecture.htm

[pega]

I have just come back from the Holy Land and at we visited Bethlehem the site of the nativity there is a star on the floor where it is said Jesus was born, the guide told us an Inn consisted of a room divided into two sections people one end and animals the other and this would have been such a place there are still some old buildings in Bethlehem but a lot of modern buildings, the old part really is only manger square and one main street, Its nice you are making a crib as so much tinsel and glitter and true meaning dismissed, the wise men are not usually in a crib until Jan 6th Epiphany, and cribs are usually left up until 13th jan. the roofs would have been flat and were made of light material we saw a house in the holy land where they lowered down the man to be healed and guide said because roof was able to be removed, it was interesting. all the best, I was so pleased to see bethlehem dec 25th is my birthday !

[johnlambert]

I have also just returned from the Holy LandOur guide said that the place where Jesus was born was in fact a cave 2000 years ago, where the animals were kept, the manger was in fact a feeding trough, the only place Mary could place the new born infant.

Hope this helps