St Elijah’s monastery in Mosul, which stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, is thought to have been razed between August and September 2014 New satellite photos confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared: the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to rubble, yet another victim of Islamic State’s relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical. St Elijah’s monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for US troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches, prayed in the chapel and worshipped at the altar. The Greek letters _chi_ and _rho_, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance. Continue reading...
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