By Rehab Saad It takes 45 minutes to arrive at the Christian villages of Maaloula and Sednaya, north of Damascus. The area is not restricted to Christian pilgrims; nor is this, necessarily, a religious excursion. Equally, in the summer, it is an opportunity to enjoy the cool, dry mountain air and the views that go with it. These villages are unlike any others, however, and it is well worth considering them from a Christian standpoint: they are, after all, among the Christian world's oldest habitations; and they contain not only countless architectural relics dating back to the earliest days of Christianity, but vast amounts of quasi-religious lore -- anecdotes, miracles, tests of faith. Maaloula is 56km away from Damascus. Located at the foot of the Qallamoun Mountain, it is 1,600m above sea level. Its houses, carved into mountain rocks, are painted white, ochre, violet, blue; hanging over the monasteries and surrounded by the green of the mountain, they make for a remarkable site. Everything is ancient here, including the people: their looks, their dress, even their language; for they speak a variant of Aramaic, the language believed to be Jesus Christ's... The Monastery of Mar Takla is by far Maaloula's most important site. Tradition has it that Takla was a fugitive Christian girl persecuted by her pagan father's own soldiers: coming on a rock face, in her flight, she implored God to help her; and suddenly the rock parted, a gap emerged, giving onto a narrow passageway that led to a cavern where, with water dripping from the roof, she could survive. This cavern became her lifelong residence, she was buried there, and afterwards a monastery was built and successively extended, eventually incorporating a large church that was rebuilt in the 1930s; the miracle is that water still drips from the roof. Other sites include the Monastery of St Sarkis and several old churches -- Saint Elias, Santa Barbara, Saint George and the Church of Penance -- as well as the shrine of Saint Saba. About 35km further down the road -- you are still at the foot of the mountain -- the town of Sednaya emerges. A clustre of houses surrounding a rock, on top of which lies the monastery of Our Lady of Sednaya, it shares many of the features of Maaloula. A steep climb will take you up to the monastery, which is said to date to the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. To many Christians this site is second only to Jerusalem: legend has it that, when Justinian went to war with the Persians, he passed through Syria and set up a camp in the desert, at which point he spied a doe and pursued it to the aforementioned rock, where, exhausted with flight, it dropped in a heap. As he was about to shoot it, the doe suddenly transformed into the figure of the Holy Virgin, glowing with ethereal light; she asked him to build a church for her on this very hill. Later on, in the emperor's dreams, the Virgin re-appeared to demonstrate the elaborate architectural design of the church he was to build her... Justinian's encounter with the Holy Virgin is depicted in a spectacular Greek mural above the Shaghoura shrine inside the monastery. Very close to the main site in a place called Maaret Sednaya, encouraged by the weather and the historical significance of the area, Jordanian investors established a five-star hotel catering to pilgrims and summer holiday-makers. The $18 million Sheraton Ma'aret Sednaya Hotel & Resort is a cozy retreat comprising 30 bungalows and 77 rooms and suites. High season takes place in the summer, with 85 per cent occupancy, a percentage that drops to 30, even 20 in winter. Antonio Albert, hotel manager says that, "besides being a summer resort for tourists from the Gulf, the hotel is a stopover for pilgrims, who had been obliged to stay in Damascus, travelling to and from Maaloula and Sednaya on the same day. Now they can spend a delightful night here."
