This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the single tourist attraction that the US Army has to offer here in Mosul (all other sight-seeing opportunities are fraught with the risk of hitting an IED so I consider them off-limits). The Monastery of St. Elijah was not named after the biblical prophet but after someone that lived in this region at the time of its construction. It was built between 350 and 571 AD and so predated Islam by at least 100 years. Apparently it was a large monastery, housing between 100 and 150 monks. The monks back then had prayer at noon, 3 PM, 6 PM, 9 PM, MN, 3 AM, 6 AM, 9 AM, etc.. I bet it was something to here 150 monks reciting Gregorian chants back then. When Saddam Hussein came to power his republican guards built barracks not too far away from the Monastery. Eventually it was turned into a headquarters building. They fortified it with tanks that were placed behind burms. When the 101st reached Mosul they came through this valley and were fired on by the tanks that were hunkered down. So the 101st returned fire. One tank was lifted up into the air and smashed against the chapel wall of the Monastery. It speaks to the construction of the Monastery that the wall is still standing (although the chapel is deemed to be an unsafe structure).
2 comments:
Very cool. I love that your family is doing the blog thing and that they will get to know and see what you are doing over in the desert. Your kids did awesome at the pinewood derby. Laurie is an awesome mechanic!
I've seen this place before. Darryl took a "field trip" there and shared some pictures with us from his 1st deployment in Mosul. I think they did some re- enlistments there too.
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