Monastaries in Mardin

Mardin is a charming city situated on the slopes of a rocky hill. Currently listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List as Mardin Cultural Landscape to be evaluated for the permanent one, every inch of the city oozes history and culture, and these lands along the Tigris River have been the crossroads of civilizations since the dawn of civilization itself.

But it makes sense, the entire city is essentially an open-air museum. Most of the city’s buildings use beige colored limestone rock which has been mined for centuries in local quarries.

Here are some of the monasteries to name only a few:

Deyrulzafaran Monastery

Deyrulzafaran Monastery was built on the site of an ancient temple once used by sun worshippers, and it later included a Roman citadel in the 5th century. From the 4th century onward, it began to function as a monastery. It served as the seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate for 640 years and remains a significant spiritual center of the Syriac Church today, as well as the official residence of the Metropolitan Bishop of Mardin. The monastery is especially notable for being one of the few places in the world where Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus, is still used in religious services.

The first printing press of the region was purchased by the Patriarch of the time in 1876 from England and transported to the monastery to print books in Syriac, Arabic, Ottoman and Turkish, until 1969. The monastery is a beautiful example of architecture with domes, arched columns, wooden engravings as well as interior and exterior masonry, and offers mosaics from that period even today.

Mor Gabriel Monastery

Mor Gabriel is another gorgeous 4th century monastery located near Mor Hananyo in Tur Abdin, and it’s the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world. It is still practicing today, with monks tending to local gardens and you can even stay within the walls if given permission, though it’s closed after dark every day.