Saidnaya  Saidnaya (also transliterated Saydnaya or Sednaya from the , "Ṣaydnāyā") is a city located in the mountains, above sea level, north of the city of Damascus in Syria. It is the home of a Greek Orthodox monastery traditionally held to have been founded by Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and where a renowned icon of the Virgin Mary is revered by both Christians and Muslims to this day. The town is noted for the large number of (Western Neo-) Aramaic speakers, along with nearby Maaloula and few smaller towns nearby such as Maarat Saidnaya. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Saidnaya had a population of 25,194 in the 2004 census. Local tradition holds that Saydnaya means ‘Halting-place of the gazelle’. The place-name has also been thought to mean Our Lady the New, from the Greek "nea", ‘new’, and the Arabic "sayyida", ‘lady’. However, the word "sayd" is generally related to hunting, and "naya" is a typical place-suffix in Syriac; therefore, Saydnaya probably means simply a hunting-place. Indeed, in ancient times, a temple of Saydoun, the Phoenician god of the hunt, stood in this once densely forested region. Under later Christian and Arabic influence, perhaps the name may have been thought to mean the ‘place of the Lady’. The Hellenistic-era name for the region centered in the Barada Valley was Abilene: the local tradition has thus long held it as the site where the grave of Abel, slain brother of Cain, lies. Scholars consider it likely that the capital of Abilene was the city of Saidnaya. Long a center of Christian pilgrimage, pilgrims from all over the world seek Saidnaya for renewal of faith and for healing. Renowned for its faithfulness to Christianity, tradition holds that the Convent of Our Lady of Saidnaya was constructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 547 AD, after he had two visions of Mary, one that indicated where to build the church and the other outlining its design. Justinian dedicated the finished project to the feast of Mary's Nativity, and annually thereafter on September 8, and through to the present day, both Muslim and Christian pilgrims have come to commemorate the feast day of "Our Lady of Saidnaya".