THE ORTHODOX convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya sits four-square on a hilltop an hour’s drive from Damascus. The convent dominates the town of Saydnaya, inhabited by Christians known for piety.

Our minibus, carrying a Lebanese television team, four European journalists and two young men from the ministry of information, winds its way up the narrow paved road to the convent and parks at the back. There, we can see where a mortar punched a large hole in the pinkish-beige stone wall near the roof of the 19th-century building. The wound has already been closed with stones and mortar.

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