Dura-Europos church

=== Woman at the fountain and garden ===
[[File:Yale 1932.1204.2.jpg|thumb|The [[Samaritan woman at the well]], or possibly [[Saint Mary]]<ref>{{cite web |url= https://news.yale.edu/2016/02/12/yale-art-gallery-painting-might-be-oldest-known-image-virgin-mary |title= Yale Art Gallery painting might be oldest known image of the Virgin Mary |date= 12 February 2016|website= Yale News|access-date= 3 September 2021}}</ref>]]

The south wall had two doors and a niche, limiting the space available for paintings. Near the main niche, there was a figure of a woman standing by a fountain. She turns to the left and wears a long robe with a rosette on her chest. In front of her is a well, into which she lowers two ropes. Two lines can be seen on their backs that come from heaven. In older literature, the woman was interpreted as the [[Samaritan woman at the well]] and sometimes also as [[Rebekah]].{{sfn|Kraeling|Welles|1967|pp=186-188}} Recent considerations, however, make it more likely the painting depicts [[Virgin Mary]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Serra |first1=Dominic E. |title=The baptistery at Dura-Europos: the wall paintings in the context of Syrian baptismal theology |journal=Ephemerides Liturgicae |date=2006 |volume=120 |issue=1 |pages=67 |url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/1644857650 |language=English |issn=0340-7446}}</ref> If the identification as the Virgin Mary is correct, it is the oldest image of Mary known to date.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Peppard |first1=Michael |title=Opinion {{!}} Is This the Oldest Image of the Virgin Mary? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/is-this-the-oldest-image-of-the-virgin-mary.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=4 December 2022 |date=30 January 2016a}}</ref>

Above the woman, on the upper part of the wall next to the canopy, was a painting of a garden. This scene remains only in descriptions and a technically poor photograph.{{sfn|Kraeling|Welles|1967|pp=65-66}}