Wadi Qadisha, lies within the Becharre and Zgharta Districts of the North Governorate of Lebanon which also has a river, called the Nahr Qadisha. There are many religious sites like, caves, chapels and monasteries and some really requires long walk for their difficult access.The word Qadisha comes from a Semitic root meaning "Holy" and Wadi Qadisha is the "Holy Valley". Since the Early Middle Ages generations of Monks, hermits, ascetics and anchorites found asylum there. These religious men, who belonged to the various confessions that grew out of medieval controversies over the nature of Christ, included the Nestorians, Monophysites, chalcedoniansand Monothelites. Even Muslims Soufis were found in this valley. They prayed in many languages: Greek, Arabic, Syriac and Ethiopian.
The Valley is nearby the Forest of the Cedars of God( The cedars used in order to build the Salomon’s Temple in Jerusalem).
The Qadisha Valley is some of the most ancient Christian monastic communities of the Middle East, including Deir Qannoubine(where seventeen Maronite patriarchs are buried in a chapel near the monastery), Deir Mar Elisha(where the Lebanese Maronite Order was founded in 1696) and Deir Mar Antonios Qozhaya(home to Lebanon's first printing press), and chapels like the Chapel of Mart Chmouni, Chapel of Lady Hawqa.
At the entrance of Becharre Lady Qadisha stands on the top of the valley. This village is also the birthplace of Gibran Khalil Gebran, and where his tomb is present nowadays in the Mar Sarkis Monastery.
