104 Items
Deyr ul Zafaran
A large late antique monastery built on top of a pagan temple to the sun. Deyr ul Zafaran is a Syrian orthodox monastery and is a major tourist draw in the region. It has been heavily restored and had unsympathetic additions made to it to attract and help facilitate more tourism and generate more income.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Church, Late Antique, Monastery, Pagan, Syrian Orthodox, Temple, Turkey
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
View of Deir Mar Musa from the east
These pictures were taken from the valley below the monastery before a road and small-holding were established there.
Type: Architecture
Tags: An Nabk, Architecture, Deir Mar Musa, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Syria
View of Deir Mar Musa from the north
These pictures were taken from the modern buildings, partially based on caves, where the men of the monastery live and the kitchen for making cheese is located. The view is of the old, central monastery buildings with the church in the foreground.
Type: Architecture
Tags: An Nabk, Architecture, Church, Deir Mar Musa, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Syria
View of Deir Mar Musa from the west
This is how visitors approaching from the west first see Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi.
Type: Architecture
Tags: An Nabk, Architecture, Deir Mar Musa, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Syria
The ancient monastic cemetery of Deir Mar Musa 
The ancient monastic cemetery of Deir Mar Musa is located in the wadi west of the monastery. It was mentioned by Sir Richard Burton in the C19th and had been comprehensively looted by the latter part of the C20th.
Type: Landscape
Tags: An Nabk, Cave, Deir Mar Musa, Grave, Landscape, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, Syria, Tomb
Dayr Mar Elian post-excavation 2005
These pictures were taken in 2005 after the British Archaeological excavations had ended and before a Syrian team undertook to excavate the entirety of the cloister. In the year since the excavations had ended a new mud brick chapel had been constructed over the sarcophagus of the saint and at the east end of this chapel the trench where three fragments of Byzantine reliquaries had been discovered with a broken glass vessel had been left uncovered. Groundworks on the north side of the chapel in preparation for a new northern cloister revealed the earlier stratigraphy of the enclosure/chapel wall.
Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeological Finds, Archaeology, Architecture, Chapel, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Intervention 36, Cloister wall north of church
When the church structure was examined in detail it was discovered that the north wall was actually at least three walls built sandwiched against each other and rendered over to create a walk way along the northern wall of the cloister with a step up on to the church roof.
Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Wall
Stripping off the cement cladding of the interior of the Mar Elian 1938 church
The cement cladding in the west of the church around the sarcophagus was stripped back to try and alleviate a damp problem. During this process the structural faults of the building were fully revealed and it became clear that the church had to be dismantled.
Type: Architecture
Tags: 1938, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Sarcophagus, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Saydnaya Convent of the Virgin
Saydnaya means "Our Lady" and the town has evidence of very early Christian occupation. Dominating the settlement is the vast Rum (Arabic speaking Greek Orthodox) Orthodox convent where the sisters also care for orphaned girls. The convent has been expanded over the centuries, but its origins are believed to be C6th. It is most famous for its icon of the Virgin which is believed to have been painted from life by St. Luke and which is believed to help women praying for fertility.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Arab Orthodox, Architecture, Church, Convent, Monastery, Qalamoun, Rum Orthodox, Saydnaya, Syria, Virgin Mary