St Elijah’s monastery in Mosul, which was a place of worship for 1,400 years, is thought to have been demolished 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", The Guardian reports.
St Elijah’s monastery in Mosul, which was a place of worship for 1,400 years, is thought to have been demolished 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", The Guardian reports.
Before the monastery was razed, a partially restored, 27,000-square-foot stone and mortar building stood fortresslike on a hill above Mosul. Although the roof was largely destroyed, there were 26 distinctive rooms in the roof including a sanctuary and chapel. One month later photos show “that the stone walls have been literally pulverized,” said chief executive of Allsource Analysis Stephen Wood, who pinpointed the destruction.
"St. Elijah’s joins a growing list of more than 100 religious and historic sites looted and destroyed, including mosques, temples, tombs, shrines and churches. Ancient monuments in the cities of Nineveh, Palmyra and Hatra are in ruins. Museums and libraries have been pillaged, books burned, artwork crushed—or trafficked", Wall Street Journal informs.
This month, at the request of the AP, satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe tasked a high resolution camera to grab photos of the site, and then pulled earlier images of the same spot.
