Yabroud, Maaloula, and Seidnaya are villages located in the Anti Lebanon Mountains. These villages are of great importance to the Christian faith. 

Seidnaya
This village, where houses are built around a rock with a very old monastery at the top, is considered a place for religious pilgrimage. A steep climb is the only way up to the monastery, which is said to date back to the Emperor Justinian. 

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary appeared to Justinian and asked him to found the monastery. After entering through a maze of passages you finally reach the Chapel of the Virgin. The walls are covered with beautiful icons including one said to have been painted by St. Luke. This chapel was very famous to Christians and at one point was the second Christian place of pilgrimage after Jerusalem, the crusaders called it "Notre Dame de Sardeneye".

Another chapel is the one dedicated to St. Peter (Mar Boutros), which is converted from an ancient tomb.

Maaloula
By far,  the most important Christian site in Syria, is the magnificent village of Maaloula. In Syria it means "the entrance", probably referring to the gorge in between the mountains. Maaloula is the only village in the world that still speaks Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. 

This village, with its houses piled on top of one another on the side of the mountain, makes it one of the prettiest villages in Syria. 

Although Maaloula dates back very far in history, there are only two chapels and few remains that date very far back. The first chapel is the St. Sergius convent (Mar Sarkis), a Greek Catholic chapel, has a beautiful display of icons on the entrance to the altar. This chapel is considered one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in Christendom. Downward into the village is the other chapel, a Greek Orthodox institution dedicated to St Thecla (Mar Taqla), is located in the lower monastery. The Saint, said to be a pupil of St Paul's, is supposed to be buried in the mountain just above the monastery. 

Yabroud
This small beautiful town is set amid a limestone amphitheater, with shade cast by the many apricot, poplar, and weeping willow trees. 

This village has evidence that man had settled here tens of thousands years ago. The Cathedral of Constantine and Helen, a Greek Catholic church, is built out of many of the blocks that came from an old temple dedicated to Jupiter known to the locals as Jupiter Yabroudis. This church contains an interesting collection of icons, and the cases of some Roman columns can also be found.