On a mountainside in Iraq’s Kurdish region, at the end of a road that winds through sparse olive trees, stands the fourth-century Mar Mattai monastery. It is Iraq’s oldest monastery, named for the ...

(MAR MATTAI MONASTERY, Iraq) — Nestled into the side of Mount Alfaf, the imposing Mar Mattai monastery looks down onto the barren valley of the Nineveh plain. On a clear day, the monks who live there ...

The Mar Mattai monastery clings to the side of a steep mountain, and on a clear day a visitor can stand against its fortresslike walls and discern far below the winsome farmlands of Upper Mesopotamia.

The last time they came along the road to the monastery of Mar Mattai in northern Iraq, it was September. Then, there was a queue of cars stretching back to Mosul. There were little girls in white ...

Mar Mattai, part of the Syriac Orthodox Church, is located 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mosul and 97 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of the Kurdish capital of Erbil atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq.

The Mar Mattai Monastery has been a home to Iraqi Christian's for 1,600 years. Week 16 Data Dump: QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs you can COUNT ON in fantasy playoffs (and ones you can't!) ...

The Mar Mattai monastery clings to the side of a steep mountain, and on a clear day a visitor can stand against its fortresslike walls and discern far below the winsome farmlands of Upper Mesopotamia.

A Syrian monk swings incense durring mass in the monastery Mar Musa al-Habashi in Nebek, north of Damascus (GHAITH ABDUL-AHAD/GETTY). The last time they came along the road to the monastery of Mar ...