West Bank: Mar Saba

No sensible farmer would settle east of Bethlehem: the country dries out so fast that you're in near-instant desert.  On the other hand, aridity makes for an excellent monkish retreat.  Hence Mar Saba, just northeast of Bethlehem.  It's the monastery of St. Saba and often described as the most remarkable building on the West Bank. It may well be so. It lies at the end of a dead-end road passing eastward through the bleak village of Ubbeidiya and past an immense garbage dump. Nineteenth century travellers often came to it from the east, by donkey on a journey from the Dead Sea. For them, the view of Mar Saba, as they rounded the last canyon bend and beheld the monastery, must have been breathtaking.