Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery

It is one of the most ancient monasteries in the world and in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, traditionally held to have been founded by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 547 AD.

Numerous beaten silver crosses and other religious symbols, left as ex votos by pilgrims, are displayed on the walls.

[1] Justinian dedicated the finished project on the Feast of Mary's Nativity, and annually thereafter on September 8 Christian pilgrims arrive at the monastery to honour Our Lady of Saidnaya.

[5] Many Latin accounts of the monastery described the Chaghoura as being "incarnate," or flesh, from the neck down, and leaking holy oil from its breasts.

[8] A small room connected to the chapel containing a painting fragment and a now-removed Syriac inscription has also been dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century.

Mosaic depiction of Mary ordering Justinian not to kill her but to build a church on the rock in the background, after having first appeared to him as a gazelle. The scroll she holds reads: لا لن تقتلني يا جوستنيان ولكنك ستشيد لي كنيسة هنا على هذا الصخر ("No, thou shalt not kill me, Justinian, but thou shalt build a church for me, here, on this rock")