Sanctuary of Yanouh

The Sanctuary of Yanouh, locally known as Mar Girios el-Azrak (Arabic: مار جريس الأزرق, lit. 'Saint George the Blue'), is a historic temple complex in the village of Yanouh, in Lebanon's Byblos hinterland. The sanctuary, characterized by Hellenistic period origins, Roman construction, and later Christian reuse, is situated on a mountain slope above the upper Adonis River (Nahr Ibrahim) valley. The site encompasses a succession of sacred buildings spanning from the second century BC through the medieval period. Its most prominent remains include a mid-second century AD tetrastyle prostyle Roman temple built of distinctive blue-grey limestone within a walled temenos, a smaller adjacent Roman shrine, and a late-5th/6th century three-aisled basilica constructed partly with the temple's blocks. The earliest phase is attested by a second century BC Aramaic inscription mentioning a "House of God," the oldest known Aramaic text in Lebanon, which records the foundation of an earlier cultic structure. In later history, Yanouh became a major Maronite center. It housed the Patriarchal seat from the 10th to the 13th centuries, and became known as Our Lady of Yanouh, with earlier, Crusader-era churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint George. Archaeological investigations beginning with 19th-century surveys and continuing with surveys in 1999 have documented continuous occupation in the nearby Tell el-Kharayeb from the Early Bronze Age into medieval times.