When Cultures Colide (inshallah): A Rare Day Out

Today we played hooky and took the day off to go exploring. It was a beautiful Iraqi day and the temperature was around 97 degrees.

Our first stop was Mar Mattai (St. Matthew's) Monastery

atop Mount Alfaf.

History

The monastery was founded in 363 by the hermit, Mar Mattai who had fled persecution in Amid under the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. According to Syriac tradition, he was involved in healing the sister of Mor Behnam and converting the brother and sister to Christianity. Their father, king Sennacherib of Assyria initially killed his son and daughter but later recanted and awarded Mattai a place atop Mount Alfaf to establish his monastery. Mattai was quickly joined by a small Syriac following, and under his leadership that community developed a true monastic ethos.

The monastery is famous for its magnificent library and considerable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts. In 1171, the Kurds attacked the monastery and several manuscripts were damaged, some who survived were taken by monks to Mosul. In 1369, another Kurdish attack on the monastery damaged further manuscripts. During the 19th century, Kurds looted the monastery several times.

From a distance you can see the monastery hanging on the side of the mountain.

This is the entrance to Mar Mattai Monastery

Each section of the Monastery shows a different period of time.

A beautiful view of the valley looking towards Mosul.

This is the entrance to the monastery.

Cute little Iraqi Christian boy.

Just inside the entrance.

A priest.

The door at the end of the walk is the entrance to the chapel.

Court yard. All around the court yard and terrace there are small rooms for families to gather and have a meal.

This is one of the rooms off the court yard where a family is gathered.

Just as you enter the chapel.

The alter.

Ancient Arabic text.

We took this picture because it reminded us of anointing.

Stairs leading up.

This young girl stopped me and wanted a picture. She was so sweet. She was an Iraqi Christian from Mosul. Her English was very good.

This is the ancient path from the valley up to the monastery. We were very lucky that there is now a road that leads all the way up the mountain. It is nearly as windy and steep as this one. No kidding.

The top structure is what is left of the ancient Monastery from 363 a.d.

It took some climbing but we got all the way up to the ancient walls and then with the help of some old scaffolding we climbed up and looked over the top. All that is left is the facade from the original structure.

Just keep going.

This was one of the coolest things we did today. Jon and I climbed down into a large black hole. It was about 30 feet down. When we got to the bottom we discovered that it was an ancient cistern.

The echo was incredible.

Looking up from the bottom of the cistern.

Cistern entrance.

As we were leaving, we saw this small village with a little Christian church.

Mir Ki

The next stop was a little village of Mir Ki.

Mud brick construction. These buildings are everywhere in the villages. You can see the stacked mud bricks against the wall of this house an the brick forms to the side. The roofs are made of sticks, grasses and mud and then a lot of the time they are covered with blue tarps and old tires or grocery sacks of rocks are placed on top to hold the tarps down. Very cheap and efficient.

I made Jon drive up to the Christian church so I could take some pictures around the yard and the entrance. When I got out of the Jeep a nice man with a machine gun walked up and unlocked the church doors for me. At this point Jon parked the Jeep and got out to join me. We were told that this church is around 50 years old.

When I first went in this is what I saw. The curtains to the alter were closed. I thought this was all I was going to be able to see until the Priest showed up at the door. He was very welcoming and took Jon up to the alter, drew the curtains up and let us take his picture.

The church is Arabic, Syriac, Christian Orthodox.

The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 but its roots date back to the first founded church outside Jerusalem in Antioch in AD 37 when and where the followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians.

Next we were invited to the Priest's house for tea and coffee. We are really struggling with the tea and coffee thing. The people are so genuinely kind and giving and then we have to tell them no and try to explain that our religion does not allow us to drink tea or coffee, all while neither one of us understand what the other person is saying. We did Ok and just had water and fruit, but it just feels so awkward.

If anyone had a good idea to help us excuse ourselves from the kindness of these people, please let me know.

We met his lovely family. He had a beautiful family of 4 sons and one daughter. I only remember 3 of the son's names, Matthew, John, and Jacob. His daughters name was Sarah.

We thanked them over and over and told them we would be back to visit. When we got back in the Jeep we both said how sorry we were that we didn't have an arabic Book of Mormon to give him. We will have to make plans to return with gifts next time.

On the Road

These are pictures from the country side that we thought were fun, beautiful and interesting.

It was time to get something to eat so we stopped at this nice roadside cafe. Notice the small mosque off to the side. Just in case there are not enough mosques in Iraq. LOL

We knew we would be safe with chicken shish. Shish is like what we would think of as kabab, but here kabab is the minced lamb meat. That is nasty so we always stick with the chicken shish.

Here is the picture you have been waiting for of the Eastern bathroom. AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!

This water closet was one of the cleanest and well kept that I have seen. It passed the smell test for me. Don't ask me how you are actually suppose to use it. I just, go in, wing it and get out as fast as I can.

I thought this was fun. I almost made Jon run off the road when I hollered, "STOP." There were at least 10 pelicans nesting in a row on the top of these power poles. Very neat. Each nest had one to three babies in them and the parents were being very protective.

Green valleys and fields with turkeys.

A cemetery in the distance.

Last stop was Khanis or Khenis

The site was built around 700 BC by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. Wall reliefs with carvings and cuneiform inscriptions are decorating the cliff side. The carvings show images of King Sennacherib, the winged bulls Lamassu and other figures that tell the story of the canal system. The reliefs and the gorge water diversion projects were part of the massive system of water works needed to feed the Khosr River running through Nineveh.

The destruction and neglect of the Khenis site. A few years ago the ancient cliff side was detonated reportedly on behalf of the KRG. As if this was not bad enough, ob-servers told that Kurdish militia regularly practice their shooting exercises on ancient sites like these. Figures of the ancient wall relief are now lying in the river banks

bullet holes have desecrated the figures and the remains of the cuneiform inscriptions.

The carvings have undergone several carved out openings in the rock. Ancient people came here to Khanis at one time and cut sheltered living spaces out of the rock. The caves are actually part of antiquity also. Too bad they had to be right over the 700 b.c. figures.

This is an unfinished Lamassu here at the waters of Khanis.

The lamassu is a celestial being from Mesopotamian mythology. Human above the waist and a bull below the waist, it also has the horns and the ears of a bull. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art, sometimes with wings. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, were placed as sentinels at the entrances.

A picture of Sennacherib's canal.

This is hard to see but it is inside one of the carved out caves. There is a large living space with what looks like beds carved in the sides of the wall.