Statue of Jesus erected on Syrian hilltop

Warring factions hold truce to allow giant bronze creation to be set up overlooking ancient pilgrimage route

A London-based charity has erected a giant bronze statue of Jesus on a Syrian hilltop after organising a truce between warrring factions to safeguard its passage from Lebanon.

The statue stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient times. The statue is 12.3 metres (40ft) tall and stands on a base that brings its height to 32 metres.

The delivery of the statue is the result of eight years work which has been set back by the civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and the statue's safety is not guaranteed. It stands among villages where some fighters, linked to al-Qaida, have little sympathy for Christians.

Project organiser Samir al-Ghadban said it was worth erecting the statue, created by an Armenian sculptor, because "Jesus would have done it".

Ghadban said the main armed groups in the area – Syrian government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the Christian town near the statue site – stopped fighting for three days while the statue was erected.

Photos provided by organisers show it being hauled in two pieces by farm tractors, then lifted into place by a crane. Smaller statues of Adam and Eve stand nearby.

The project, called I Have Come to Save the World, is run by the London-based St Paul and St George Foundation, of which Ghadban is the director. It was previously named the Gavrilov Foundation, after the Russian businessman Yuri Gavrilov.

Documents filed with the Charity Commission describe it as supporting "deserving projects in the field of science and animal welfare" in England and Russia, but the commission's accounts show it spent less than £250 in the last four years. Ghadban said most of the financing came from private donors.

Russians have been a driving force behind the statue project. The Kremlin is the chief ally of the embattled Assad, and the Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties.

Ghadban, who is Syrian-Russian and lives in both countries, said he hoped the statue, which was inspired by Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue, would in turn inspire Syria's Christians.