Mar Gerges Blue Yanouh

The Sanctuary of Yanouh in Lebanon's Byblos District sits at 1,136 meters elevation along the ancient Roman road from Byblos to Baalbek. Its history dates to the 3rd millennium BC, with the earliest written record being a 2nd-century BC Aramaic inscription mentioning a "House of God," the oldest known Aramaic text in Lebanon. The most prominent remains include a mid-2nd-century AD Roman temple built of distinctive blue-grey limestone, known as Mar Girios el-Azraq (Saint George the Blue), and a late-5th-century three-aisled basilica. Yanouh served as seat of the Maronite patriarchate from 750 to 1277 AD.