Monastery of St. Elian
Al-Qaryatayn, Homs, Syria
The Monastery of St. Elian is a Syriac Catholic monastery near the town of Al-Qaryatayn, along a trade route between the two major cities of Palmyra and Damascus in the Homs Governorate of central Syria. It was destroyed on 21 August 2015 by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), whose acts of terror in the Syrian Civil War include widespread vandalism and violence against non-Salafists and historical heritage. St. Elian Monastery housed a 5th-century tomb and served as a major pilgrimage site, particularly to those seeking a cure for bodily ailments. Parts of the monastery, including the foundations, were 1,500 years old.
Monastery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).