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Photo: Doug · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Abandoned Christian monastery in Iraq
The Monastery of Saint Elijah, or Dair Mar Elia, was located in Mosul, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. Established in the late 6th century, it was one of Iraq's oldest monasteries. It belonged to the Church of the East and then to the Chaldean Catholic Church. The monastery was shut down in 1743, when the Afsharids massacred its monks after they refused to convert to Islam, and went on to become a Christian pilgrimage site. Its ruins were damaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and were destroyed entirely by the Islamic State in 2014.
