st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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ST.
JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
CHAPTER II.
THE MONASTERY OF ST.
SABAS.
ON the south side of the Wady en-Nar, or Valley
of Fire, the name given to the lower part of the
Kidron Valley where it
approaches the Dead Sea,
stands the Mar Saba, or monastery of St. Sabas.
The same circumstance causes the gorge, a little
higher up, to bear the name of Wady er-Rahib, or
Monks Valley. The savage wildness of the scene,
and the sense of utter desolation around, have
always left a deep impression on the minds of
travellers. To the east rise the precipices, 800 feet
high, behind which the blue and glossy waters of the
Dead Sea lie glaring in the sun. To the north-west
the dry torrent-bed of the Kidron leads up to
Jerusalem, here some ten miles distant. The build
ings themselves appear to hang like an eagle s nest
on to the precipitous face of the rocks. Two high
towers," says a recent traveller, 1 "
first meet the
eye ;
but on approaching nearer one is bewildered
with the pile of massive walls, domes, battlements,
staircases, and five splendid buttresses supporting the
building on the edge of the precipice from the giddy
1
"Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines," by Emily A.
Beaufort, 1861, ii., p. 126. A view of the monastery is given
in Game s Syria and the Holy Land," ii., p. 86.