Jubail Church


Jubail Church is a 4th-century church building near Jubail, a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia.

History

Discovered in 1986, it originally belonged to the Church of the East, a branch of Eastern Christianity in the Middle East. The majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians.
Recently, they have put a fence around the church to prevent potential tourists from seeing it. However, the fences have not stopped locals from coming in to vandalise and damage the building. Churches are officially banned in Saudi Arabia and a limited number of Christians, mostly westerners, are permitted to worship in private as long as no Christian symbols are openly visible.
The Saudi government hides it from locals and even archaeologists as the Kingdom follows a strict version of Islamic law and prohibits all non-Islamic forms of worship.