Monastery of St Thekla in the Maalula, Syria

The name of Maalula is translated from Aramaic as "entrance", from Arabic as "a place where sick people come." In Maalula there is a convent of St. Thekla, the Equal-to-the-Apostles First Martyr, a disciple of the Apostle Paul.

It was built on the site of a cave where St. Thekla lived, preached and healed.
In the mountains there is a 2-kilometer  passage through which, according to legend, St. Thekla ran away from the robbers who were pursuing her.
The slopes of the mountains along the passage are dug by other caves of hermits who settled in these places.
Only here today you can hear the ancient dialect of the Aramaic language, in which Christ spoke.

Source: based on materials from the site "venividi.ru"
All photos, except for the last one, were taken before the 2013 war and the devastation of the monastery.

Recall that in 2014, the monastery was seized by terrorists and was under their control for more than a year. Currently, restoration work is underway in the monastery, in which representatives of the All-Russian organization "BATTLE BROTHERHOOD" are taking an active part, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church.