Discover Lebanon - Holy Lebanon

The Cana of south Lebanon is without doubt the real Cana of the Biblical marriage feast. The remaining “Canas”, misled generations of historians, who were deluded by the fact that these other “Canas” were also in the ancient Holy Land.

Marriages are beginning and should be accompanied by feast and Canaean wine. The grapevines that are grown in the fertile red soil of the south produces the most delicious grapes and from them comes the rich, red wine of Cana. This was the wine that Christ produced water in his first miracle.

Among the vestiges of Cana of Galilee, stone jars were discovered; they are similar to the jars described in the Gospel, namely the ones that contained water and Christ turned into wine. Their volume corresponds to the one described in the New Testament: 80 to 120 liters. These stone jars are still located in the neighborhood of Al Jalil’s sanctuary, in the courtyard, which is very spacious place to hold wedding festivities.

Near the village of Cana, on a big isolated rock, there is a sculpture representing twelve persons and, in the middle of them, a thirteenth person of bigger height stands up, this probably symbolizes the twelve disciples and Christ.

There are many other holy places in Lebanon, such as Sarepta, known in the Bible for the stay and miracles of Prophet Elijah; Maghdoucheh, where the sanctuary of Saydet el-Mantara, or Our Lady of Care, dug in the rock. It is a chapel where the Virgin Mary waited for her Son while He was preaching on the Lebanese coastline. On September 8, (feast of Virgin Nativity), people go on pilgrimage to the cave; the Qadisha Valley with its ancient monasteries and churches carved in rocks; and the old monastery of St. Hardine built inside a cave in the province of Batroun.