50 Items
Dayr Mar Elian in the snow
These images show Dayr Mar Elian in the winter of 2008 when there was a heavy fall of snow, which is naturally relatively rare in the Syrian desert. The pictures were taken by Brother Daniel, a novice at the monastery of Mar Musa and show the old and new cloisters, old and new churches, olive and other fruit trees and a new building built in the traditional 'beehive' style.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria
View of the site on the completion the Syrian-led excavations at Dayr Mar Elian
A Syrian team from the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) continued excavations at Dayr Mar Elian after the end of the British project. These images were taken on a site visit with the superior of the Monastery of Mar Musa al-Habashi, Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio and Fr. Jacques Mourad, a monk at Mar Musa and parish priest and prior of Mar Elian.
Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria
Sarcophagus of Mar Elian 
The Byzantine sarcophagus believed to hold the remains of Mar Elian (St. Julian) and is covered with pilgrimage graffiti believed to date back to at least the C9th. The form of the sarcophagus is late antique and dates from the C5th-C8th. These images show the tomb before it was cleaned by excavators and damage to the grave, reputedly caused by villagers in the 1920s, is clearly visible. It also shows the sarcophagus before its coverings were removed with the votive offerings placed at the shrine by the faithful and the green satin covering given by local Muslims denoting the tomb of a holy man in their tradition.
Type: Sculpture
Tags: Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Sarcophagus, Shrine, Syria, Syriac, Syriac Inscription, Tomb
View over Qaryatayn looking east from the neighbouring hills
This view eastwards over Qaryatayn shows the wadi (seasonal watercourse) in the foreground with Dayr Mar Elian in the middle and the modern settlement in the background. The pictures face eastwards in the direction of Palmyra.
Type: Landscape
Tags: Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Desert, Landscape, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria
New Church at Dayr Mar Elian
Images of the new church built at Dayr Mar Elian once it was established that the church built in 1938 was unstable and needed to be demolished. A traditionally-built small chapel was built over the sarcophagus and this larger, more modern church was built to the west of the cloister.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Icon, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Byzantine Reliquaries
The damaged remains of two Byzantine reliquaries were found during the excavations at Dayr Mar Elian. The lid of one replicates a Roman sarcophagus and the other piece is a base of a different size decorated with a motif of ringed circles.
Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Reliquary, Sculpture, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Dayr Mar Elian
These images show the cloister of Dayr Mar Elian esh-Sharqi after the Syrian team from the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) finished their work at the site. A strategy for preserving the site has been indefinitely delayed by the start of the Syrian civil war.
Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Dayr Mar Elian: A Monastery of the al-Qalamun, Syria. Historical Background and Project Summary, Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes, vol. 45-46 (2002-2003), pp. 419-424
This is the final draft of a paper published in Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes.
Type: Text
Tags: Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Monastic Archaeology in Syria (2): the 2004 season at Dayr Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Qaryatayn, Syria
This is the report (unpublished) of the final season of the Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project (DMEAP). It was submitted for publication to Levant but the manuscript was overlooked when the publication changed editorial staff and material was lost in the move.
Type: Text
Tags: Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Excavation, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Reliquary, Syria, Syrian Civil War
The Church of Mar Elian, Homs
The Church of Mar Elian is believed to date back to the early fifth century and to have been founded on the site of the saint's martyrdom in 284. Elian was a local physician who was murdered by his father, a Roman officer, for his Christian faith. He is widely venerated in Syria for miracles of healing. The church was built around a late antique marble sarcophagus decorated with crosses and located in a small side apse south of the main sanctuary of the church. In the 1970s fragments of frescoes and mosaics were discovered during a renovation programme in the chamber around the tomb, and some elements of the decoration possibly date back as far as the sixth century, though most of the frescoes are twelfth century. Today the church interior boasts frescoes of the life of Mar Elian and various biblical scenes painted by two Romanian artists.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C12th, C5th, C6th, Church, Fresco, Homs, Late Antique, Mar Elian, Mosaic, Sarcophagus, Syria, Tomb