People visited that place and prayed. It’s an old building, and if it wasn’t for ARCH, it would collapse soon. So we learned about what they did so far, and what they plan for the future. A very important point was the fact that they actually did a lot of research before starting the project. That is very important because when we try to save a building we should preserve its original look. And that is exactly what they are doing, which is great, we saw some parts of the building that were rebuilt, you couldn’t even see the difference which was a great sign. They also asked the people of the village how it looked like and about all the details, they even created a digital 3D model to show how it will look like once it’s done. They rebuilt an entire wall because it was leaning forward, they also worked on different columns of the building.

Another important thing was how they were saving those ancient writings on the walls of the Shrine. They covered everything important (including the grave), but they left space for air to go in and come out, because otherwise they would be ruined. There is also a metal roof covering the entire building, which was built to save the Shrine from heavy rains, they will take it off once the restoration is done. Also, they told us that the funding for this project comes from different sources, some from the U.S., some from our prime minister, and individual people donate money as well, which I think is great because usually the obstacle for doing such projects is funding.

After that, we visited the Rabban Hormizd Monastery, which is an important monastery of the Chaldean Catholic church, and goes back to the seventh century, it’s carved out in the mountains. It has a very rich and old history. People assume that there are more than 400 little caves, and there are still way more to be discovered, there is also a missing library, which I think would be very interesting if it gets discovered, it probably would tell us even more about our culture and history. So people back then went to this place to practice their religion, there were special places for monks to worship, and there were so many interesting stories about how they would spend their lives there, a lot of spiritual stories that connect with worshipping and practicing religion. There were also so many tunnels connecting those small rooms together, you can easily get lost, because it’s almost like a puzzle, which was interesting to see how they designed it, plus the writings on the walls and details everywhere made it even more special.

Some parts of the monastery have been rebuilt, which unfortunately is clearly visible, unlike the Shrine where they actually tried to copy the original look, it is stable now which is what matters the most, so it’s okay.

Visiting such sites is very important, especially for us as we are trying to be future engineers, it is great to see the whole process of preserving such precious places and to also witness the unique and beautiful style we had back then. They are great sources for our history and culture. We can learn so much about our history and culture from places like these.

We should try our best to preserve historical places, because there are tons of other places in our region that need urgent repair or soon we will lose those great ancient buildings. We should save them from any external factors that could ruin them. And that’s when our role as “engineers” comes in, we should come up with the best solution to preserve our culture and make our ancient buildings stable.

These places should also inspire us to make new unique designs that represent our culture in the best way possible.
Thanks to those who are saving our culture for us, saving them from wars, and other factors, reconstructing them so they are stable and last forever. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, it was such an amazing learning experience for me and I loved every second we spent there, my favorite part was the Shrine, because I’m interested in how they come up with solutions and the whole constructing experience.

Hopefully one day we can also work on such projects and make the world somehow a better place!