Jerusalem, Palestine
Coordinates: 31.739220, 35.212755
Also knows as the Church of the Seat of Mary, it was a 5th-century Byzantine church in Jerusalem, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
It was built on the alleged resting place of Bibi Maryam رضي الله عنها on the road to Bethlehem mentioned in christians texts.
The church was built by a wealthy widow named Ikelia in AD 456 on what was already a major pilgrimage site. It was enlarged in the 6th century, but destroyed around the 11th century.
Its remains were discovered accidentally during construction work of Highway 60 in 1992 near Mar Elias Monastery.
The course of the highway was shifted to avoid damage to the site, so that the ruins are now just off the road, at the once municipal border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem before 1967. The site was excavated in 1997.
