Sir Bani Yas Monastery
Coordinates: 24 ° 19 ′ 54 ″ N , 52 ° 38 ′ 20 ″ E
The monastery of Sir Bani Yas is an archaeological excavation site in the United Arab Emirates and is located on the offshore island of Sir Bani Yas /صير بني ياس / Ṣīr Banī Yās in the Persian Gulf . The place marks the southernmost point of Christian pre-Islamic missionary work on the Arabian Peninsula and is at the same time the only Christian monastery in the United Arab Emirates of this time. It is evidently connected to a group of early Christian churches and monasteries on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. It could also have served as a place of pilgrimage and is in the area of an ancient trade route to India .
The island monastery was the settlement of Nestorian monks and, according to archaeologists, existed from the 6th to 8th centuries AD. The uncovered ruins occupy a square building complex with an edge length of around 70 meters, in which the foundation walls of the monastery church can also be found. Other remains of the building were documented around an inner courtyard at the entrance to the church.
The church has two construction phases: first, a single-nave east-facing church with an apse 14 meters long and 4.5 meters wide was built. In a later construction phase, two aisles were added. Remnants of stucco and plaster recovered from the rubble show artfully decorated patterns in combination with the Christian cross motif .
The original plan was to build a tourism resort on this island, which was only used for agriculture , and an airfield and the first hotel facilities were already being built. The first excavation campaign from 1993 to 1996 was initiated by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan , the founder of the United Arab Emirates. After a long hiatus, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayid Al Nahyan ordered the resumption of excavation work in 2009 . With the partial uncovering and restoration of the remains of the monastery, it is now hoped to be able to offer an additional tourist attraction on the island. The monastery grounds were presented to the public for the first time in December 2010.
Web links
- ADIAS (Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey) website with photos and further information on the excavation
- Desert Island (Sir Bani Yas) comprehensive video report on the excavations (English; 3 min)
- Pre-Islamic monastery discovered in Abu Dhabi
- Report (in English) about the excavations
literature
- GDR King: A Pre-islamic christian Site on Sir Bani Yas island . In: Tribulus . tape 4.2 , 1994.
- Roman Křivánek: Geophysical Survey on archaeological sites on Sir Bani Yas island, Abu Dhabi, (UAE) . In: Archeologické památky . tape 88/1 , 1997, ISSN 0031-0506 , pp. 142–150 ( full text [PDF; 344 kB ]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian monastery excavated. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung from December 15, 2010.
