One day while living in Jerusalem, I went with Ben, a British friend of mine who was taking a break from studying Arabic in Amman, to explore Bethlehem (and Hebron). We hopped in with a taxi driver who befriended us (and was delighted at my buddy’s excellent Arabic and my feeble Arabic) and he proceeded to take us around Bethlehem. One of the highlights was the Mar Saba Monastery near Bethlehem. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
The Great Lavra of St. Sabas, known in Arabic as Mar Saba (Hebrew: מנזר מר סבא), is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the West Bank east of Bethlehem. It was founded by Saint Sabas of Cappadocia in the year 439 and today houses around 20 monks. It is considered to be one of the oldest inhabited monasteries in the world, and still maintains many of its ancient traditions. One in particular is the restriction on women entering the main compound. The only building that women can enter is the Women’s Tower, near the main entrance.
And here’s a picture:
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One Response
October 11th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Mar Saba was one of the greatest monastery’s Ive seen in my whole life, and Ive been traveling a lot since I’m a photographer and part of the TV reporters crew.
Its greatness is not the shape of the building or surroundings or something that makes great majority of other temples and monastery’s, its the energy and that historical background..
I really can describe it with few words, one should be there and feel the greatness of that remarkable historical structure.
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