One of the jewels of nature in North Lebanon, the valley of Qannoubine begins at an altitude of 900 meters and finally reaches 1,900 up on the slope of Qurnat as Sawda. It is indeed a holy valley, one where every rock, stone, pebble, trunk, tree and grain of earth bears the imprints of a great past civilization, that of the cenobia where cenobite monks lived in small communities, whereas the hermits lived alone.