Aerial view of Mar Saba Monastery Coffee Mug

The Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, known in Arabic as Mar Saba (Arabic: دير مار سابا‎; Hebrew: מנזר מר סבא‎; Greek: Λαύρα Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμένου), is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine. The traditional date for the founding of the monastery by Saint Sabas of Mutalaska, Cappadocia is the year 483 and today houses around 20 monks. It is considered to be one of the oldest inhabited monasteries in the world, and still maintains many of its ancient traditions. One in particular is the restriction on women entering the main compound. The only building that women can enter is the Women's Tower, near the main entrance. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author Godot13