the monastery and found, in the seven room-size vaults, three Syriac Orthodox patriarchs and four archbishops buried seated on thrones in full regalia.” The monastery has 365 rooms - one for each day of the year. This monastery is the key reason to visit Mardin. In 451, the Miaphysite congregation of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Jacobites) split from the Byzantine Church after the Council of Chalcedon’s debate about the true nature of Christ. It served as the seat of the Syrian Orthodox church from 493 to the 1920s. The hardy Mardin Christian community has dwindled from 2000 to 200 over the past 30 years. The church still uses Aramaic, Jesus’ language, as its liturgical tongue. Services are held daily, led by one of the two remaining monks. To the right of the entrance, down a few steps is a prayer room originally used as a temple to Baal in 2000 B.C. Above it is an old mausoleum formerly used as a medical school; the wooden doors are inlaid with lions and serpents. The main chapel still retains patches of its original turquoise coat and houses a 300-year-old Bible, a 1000-year-old baptismal font, and a 1600-year-old mosaic floor. Printing press The monastery has made a great effort to print books. A printing press was bought during a journey to England in 1874 and subsequently shipped to Antonius Azar in Aleppo. In 1881 the press was moved to the Monastery and in 1882 a separate house for the press was built. In the 1880s the archbishop of Jerusalem was sent to England to learn the printing. He came back with a second press as a backup for the first, which was located in Jerusalem. In 1888 the first book was printed in the monastery and a copy of the first book was sent to Queen Victoria. In the Monastery books kept being printed until 1917. From 1913 to 1914 also a periodical named Hikmet was printed. In the Turkish Republic the printing press was used to print official documents as it was the only press in the region. See also Mount Izla Syriac Orthodox Church References Sources External links Charity House Presentation Presentation 493 establishments Christian monasteries established in the 5th century Buildings and structures in Mardin Province 5th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire Syriac Orthodox monasteries in Turkey Tur Abdin