Qadisha Valley

Qadisha, one of the deepest and most beautiful valleys in Lebanon, is indeed a world a part. At the bottom of this wild steep-sided gorge runs the Qadisha River whose source is in the Qadisha Grotto at the foot of the Cedars. And above the famous Cedar grove stands Qornet el Sawda, Lebanon's highest peak.

The word Qadisha comes from a Semitic root meaning "holy" and Wadi Qadisha is the "Holy Valley." Filled with caves and rock shelters inhabited from the third millennium B.C. to the Roman period, the valley is scattered with cave chapels, hermitages and monasteries cut from rock. Since the Early Middle Ages generations of monks , hermits, ascetics and anchorites found asylum here. Even Moslem Soufis were found in this valley.