The Catholic Church tradition about the death
of Mother Mary is called "The Dormition" (the
sleep).
She went into a deep sleep from which she
never woke. The location of her death is not
known, and has variously been given as
Jerusalem, Ephesus (Turkey) and France.  
Little mention is ever made of the grave on the
Old Silk Road.

Yet, as I researched I found several graves
related to Mary legends  along the trail (see
map of graves) I realized there was a very
good chance she could be here!
To see the grave, which is on property now
owned by Pakistan TV, I had to return to
Islamabad and get written permission, which
took several more days. Finally, the day
arrived, and we made the steep climb up the
hill.
When I got to the grave, it was a shock I
wasn't prepared for. The grave  has been
terribly desecrated through the years...  
I realized few in the world might care as deeply
for these sites. The Bamiyam Buddha is gone:
Joseph the Patriarch's grave  near Palestine
was destroyed in the summer of 2000. Each
week in some large way or small, the world
loses another great piece of history. It doesn't
always happen with a big bang of dynamite.
Sometimes the destruction consists  of a few
small stolen  relics  to sell on E-Bay each
month.

What if there was just one chance in a million?
Or one chance in a billion  this could be her
final resting place? Surely we owe it ourselves,
and to her, to find out. How hard would that
be? A few archaeologists and scientists could
get to the truth in a matter of days. The impact
on the world would be enormous.  If we don't
make the effort soon, then  the
Taliban-fundamentalist  mentality will make the
choices for us,

The site has already been twice attacked and
bombed.

I  brought some yellow silk roses to place at
her grave, and as I pushed them through the
barbed wire I thought this  was someone's
mother once  buried here, and certainly, after
surviving all these centuries as a legend,  she
deserves better than this!

I met people in Murree who do care, and  
slowly efforts are being made to validate this
site. I hope they succeed in getting the
interest of serious archaeologists.
Photo taken by Suzanne Olsson
When  dust rises to Heaven, it is still dust. When a
jewel falls into the dust,
it is still a jewel. (Rumi~Sufi)
This is Pindi Point, or Queen's Mountain in Murree. Mother
Mary's grave is on the right hillock under the antenna.
My home was located  bottom-center of this picture. I was there
during  the peak of Taliban  in Afghanistan, when  this little area
was flooded with thousands of  refugees. Yet every resident of
Murree helped them, and as heavy as the extra burden was on
them, they worked together to get through some very hard times.
The grave of Joseph, once a  documentary
subject for Pakistan TV, is a few miles away. I
lived in the village down the side of the
mountain,  and traveled  these hills daily (yes,
it's a very steep hill).  
A young man often sat on the stone wall and
played his flute as I went by. He was very good!
Sometimes the owner of the white horses  
offered me rides up the hill.  

This is also called Queen's Mountain; the word
Mari means "Queen." In recent years the name  
evolved from Mari de Ashtan(resting place of
Mary) to Mari, and now the town is known as
Murree. I saw a film made of the site many
years ago, when the stone alter still remained it
was  covered in candle wax, and prayer flags
were everywhere among the alpine wildflowers,  
flowing in  mountain breezes.  Songbirds once
gathered in great abundance here. The
mountain often glowed with  strange auras of
light at night. People traveled from far and wide
to  bring their sick here for healing, or
sometimes just  sit quietly  beside the grave and
say:
"Yes. We remember you, and we honor you."
Although it's  impossible to have "prayer flags"
at Mother Mary's grave now, these prayer flags
still exist in the forest at Moses' grave in
Bandipora, Kashmir. When I visited here and
took this photo, I added a piece of cloth  from my
clothing. In the remote mountains, there is little
else one can make as an offering.