Saidnaya (also transliterated Saydnaya, Seidnaya or Sednaya, from the Syriac: ܣܝܕܢܝܐ, Arabic: صيدنايا, romanized: Ṣaydnāyā) is a city located in the mountains, 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level, 27 km (17 mi) 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. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Saidnaya had a population of 25,194 in the 2004 census.
