Reopening of Intervention 7 to investigate how it relates to the east end of the church

These pictures show the backfilling around intervention 7 being removed in preparation for continuing work in the trench.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Site of the east end of the former 1938 church

This is a view of the east end of the 1938 church after the structure was dismantled.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Site visit to Dayr Mar Elian with students in 2010

These pictures were taken on the way to begin excavations at Zalabiyeh in 2010 and show the state of the Syrian excavation, site museum and elements of the new church and cloister to the north as they stood in the last year before the Syrian civil war began.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeological Finds, Archaeology, Architecture, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Monastery, Museum, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Steps up from the monastery entrance

The steps up from the entrance clearly illustrate the fact that the ground level of the monastery is much higher than that outside the walls.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Stone arcade running east from the site of the 1938 church

A stone arcade was revealed to be running further east than the 1938 church, on the same alignment of the church so that it suggested that the building was once larger and had contracted over time as the shrine had declined in importance.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Surface level Trench 1

This picture was taken facing NE on the first morning of excavation.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Castle, Citadel, Fortress, Syria, Zalabiyeh

Surface level Trench 2

This picture was taken facing NE on the first morning of excavation.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Castle, Citadel, Fortress, Syria, Zalabiyeh

Test pit looking for sterile soil in trench 3

This test trench was dug at the westernmost end of trench 3 to confirm that there was no earlier occupation level under the Byzantine era dwelling.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Byzantine, Syria, Umayyad, Zalabiyeh

The Pool of Bethesda

Type: Archaeological Excavation

Trench 1 at Context 1.03 and extension 2 at Context 1.01

These pictures face NE and show Trench 1 with extension 2 at Context 1.02 and the rest of the trench at Context 1.03.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Castle, Citadel, Fortress, Syria, Zalabiyeh