Visiting the Monastery of Mar Saba: A group of volunteers from the Excellence Center visited the Monastery of Mar Saba recently. This astounding place is nestled in the desert hills between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. It is a spectacular sight not to be missed while visiting Palestine, a beautiful place to hike and wonder at the diverse history of the area.
The Monastery is also known as The Holy Lavras of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, getting its name from the founding monk in the year 483. The Cappadocian Greek monk/saint is also buried in the Monastery. The place is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited monastery and it houses around 20 monks at a time. The ย monks still practice Byzantine time, which means the days end as soon as he sun goes down, and begin with one of their many services as early as after midnight.
It is not easy to get a glimpse of the insides of the monastery even though it is supposed to be open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, (except Wednesdays and Fridays). According to some websites one should have an appointment beforehand, sometimes ringing the bell proves futile as no one ever opens the gate. Nevertheless, they hold to their ancient traditions of not allowing women to visit anything else than the Womenโs Tower near the main entrance. During our visit we did not go in, it was already getting late and since most of us were women, we decided to simply walk around the valley and enjoy the view of the amazing structure from the different angels around it, as well as the imposing valley dotted with caves.
The monastery is located in the Kidron Valley, which starts in Jerusalem between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives and runs all the way to the Dead Sea. The area is also called in Arabic Wadi Nar, which means the valley of fire and can really give you an idea of what the place is like in the summer. There is a water spring underneath it all, a big reason for the monks settling here, but it is dry in the summer. Unfortunately, the stream running down the valley is as dirty as can be.
Even though the monastery is over 1500 years old it has been restored in many occasions, the most recent being after an earthquake in 1893. The structure looks somewhere between a fortified castle, a Greek village with church domes and a monastery. It is beautiful to see, especially from the other side of the valley and we recommend hiking around to the different point. It is important to come with good walking shoes and some energy to walk down and up the valley a couple of times to truly experience its grandeur. The caves, some of which are covered and closed, were in its time the areaโs prime attraction as they are perfect for retreating and praying.
The group took a short walk, it was getting late and we didnโt have time to explore as much as we would have liked down the impressive valley, but the views were beautiful and definitely worth a visit. We recommend taking a visit and allowing time to explore the area, for the really brave ones you can hike all the way to the Dead Sea!
