The author of Descriptio terrae sanctae, who may have been John Phokas (Pilgrim), recorded that Mar Elias Monastery had been "erected by the ancient men who loved God, but had fallen down completely because of the earthquake". He did not specify the date of this earthquake, and its attribution remains debated. Ambraseys (2009) proposed that the destruction should be associated with the Jordan Valley earthquake(s) of 659/660 CE, whereas Guidoboni and Comastri (2005), Ben-Menahem (1979), Amiran et al. (1994), and Pringle (1993–98, vol. 2) instead favor a mid-12th-century CE event.