Mar Elias al-Hayy: Elijah’s Cave Chapel near Saidnaya

About 2200 metres south of the village of Maarat Saidnaya, on a rock outcrop between 1200 and 1300 metres high, stands a shrine to the Prophet Elijah with a cave chapel beneath it. The chapel’s murals date from the first half of the 13th century. The outcrop looks over the village of Maarouneh and the Ghouta.

Why the place is held sacred

Tradition says that the Prophet Elijah hid in this cave while fleeing King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. A crack splits the mountain from top to bottom, and its floor cannot be seen; villagers call it al-Saiqa, the thunderbolt. In the story, the crack is the mark of the lightning that came down to save Elijah. The saint is the village’s protector, and in Maarat Saidnaya almost every house has someone called Elias.

The cave chapel and its murals

Local workers found the chapel in 1982. A study by Karel Innemee and Mat Immerzeel, published in the journal Al-Masaq in 2000, dates the murals to the first half of the 13th century and links them to a painter working in a Byzantine-Cypriot style. Arabic sources list Saint Nicholas, the Virgin Mary and the Prophet Elijah among the figures. Some popular sources place the paintings in the 8th or 11th century; the peer-reviewed study does not support those dates.

The chapel once belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church and is now held by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The shrine building above it is reported to have been built in 1897 on the order of the Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory Youssef; that date could not be checked against a primary source.

The feast of Elijah

The feast begins every year on the night of 19 July and runs through 20 July. Hundreds of people come, and Muslim neighbours bring vows as well as Christians. It is the busiest day of the year; for a quiet visit, another day suits better.

Getting there

The way climbs south from Maarat Saidnaya to the outcrop. The village lies south of Saidnaya, and the nearby Mor Ephrem Monastery fits into the same day. No current source describes the road or the visiting hours.

What not to miss

The al-Saiqa crack. It is as much a part of the story as the chapel: the reason the place is held sacred starts there.