What Satellite Photos Now Confirm about the Oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq

News Staff : Jan 20, 2016
CBN News

"St. Elijah's Monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for U.S. troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches, prayed in the chapel, worshipped at the altar. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ's name, were carved near the entrance." -AP via Fox News

(Erbil, Iraq)—[CBN News] The Islamic State [ISIS] razed Iraq's oldest Christian monastery to the ground in 2014, new evidence shows. (Screengrab via CBN News)

New satellite images show a field of rubble where the 1,400 year-old St. Elijah's Monastery of Mosul once stood.

The Associated Press obtained the satellite images and showed them to Iraqi priests who once served there.

Images in August of 2014 show the monastery compound with large trucks and other heavy equipment lined up nearby. Just a week later, pictures show nothing but dirt and rocks on the site.

"I can't describe my sadness," one priest said. "Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled."