The Church of St Elias at Izra
In Izra’s Christian quarter, 200 metres from St George: St Elias, dated 542, one of two Byzantine churches in town still holding services. Plan, dome, visiting.
- Opening hours
- Variable — a working church; ask locally about visiting hours
- Entry
- Variable — confirm at the entrance
- Duration
- 30 minutes
- Best time
- Morning, outside service times
- Period
- Byzantine
- Address
- Christian quarter, Izra, 40 km north of Daraa
A Byzantine church squeezed between houses in the old Christian quarter of Izra. It is dated 542 and belongs to the Melkite Greek Catholic community. The Church of St George (515), which has its own page here, is about 200 metres away; the two are the town’s 6th-century churches still in use for worship, and they are seen on the same walk. Current visiting hours and the church’s present condition have not been verified.
The plan: from square to cross
The core of the church is close to square. With rectangular arms added on either side and a wide semicircular apse to the east, the plan has become a cross. From outside, the apse reads as a rounded mass of basalt blocks.
Later additions
The present wooden dome and the tall windows in its drum are not original; a lower dome stood there before. The old timber roof was replaced by a flat reinforced-concrete one, and a new bell tower was added alongside. So the dome and tower you notice first from the street are the youngest parts of the building; what dates from 542 is the basalt walls beneath them.
What not to miss
The stonework around the door. Photographs taken for the Dumbarton Oaks archive in 1996 record the lintel, the capitals on either side of the doorway and the blocks carrying inscriptions, one by one. The sources available here do not give the text of the inscriptions, so no reading is offered, but the blocks are there at the door.
Getting there
Izra is 40 kilometres north of Daraa on the Damascus road. St Elias is about 200 metres from the Church of St George. The dome of St George is easy to pick out in the quarter, so it is a good place to ask the way from. The church has no marked location on maps, so no coordinates are given.
The community and the present
The Melkite community of Izra numbered about 4300 in 2011. This is a working church, not a museum; ask in town about visiting times. The governorate has been under the transitional government since December 2024. The church’s present condition and visiting arrangements have not been verified.
Tips
- The Church of St George is 200 metres away; put both on the same walk
- Don't walk in during a service; asking in the quarter is the easiest way to find the times
- Look closely at the door lintel and the capitals on either side
- Cover shoulders and knees, and keep your voice down inside
Transparency
- How this was chosen
- Written by hand; opening hours, entry fee and coordinates are kept as data. A field that is not known for certain is marked as variable rather than guessed.
- Facts checked
- September 2026
- Last updated
- September 15, 2026