Yanouh

This article is about the Lebanese village in the Byblos district. For other uses, see Yanouh (disambiguation).
For the town in Israel, see Yanuh-Jat.
Yanouh
يانوح
Village
Nickname(s): 
Tell Yanouh, Kharayeb, Yenouh, Anoch, Ianosh [1][2]
Yanouh is located in Lebanon
Yanouh
Yanouh
Location in Lebanon
Coordinates: 34°6′2.1″N 35°53′2.53″E / 34.100583°N 35.8840361°E / 34.100583; 35.8840361
Country Lebanon
GovernorateKeserwan-Jbeil
DistrictByblos
Area
 • Total1.47 km2 (0.57 sq mi)
Elevation
1,120 m (3,670 ft)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)+3

Yanouh (Arabic: يانوح) is a village and municipality in the Byblos District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon. It is located 94 kilometers north of Beirut. Yanouh's inhabitants are predominantly Maronite Catholics.[3] Its average elevation is 1,120 meters above sea level and its total land area is 147 hectares.[4] Yanouh stands on the slopes of Joubbat El Mnaitra, five miles east of Qartaba, on the right bank high up in the ravine carved out by the Adonis River, now known as Nahr Ibrahim.

Yanouh, once a Phoenician center, is half-way between Byblos and Heliopolis (Baalbek), around 20 km as the crow flies from the Mediterranean Sea.[1] Its Phoenician temple is a monument to the same religion as that of Apheca, but the later Roman temple was dedicated to Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and daughter of the god Jupiter.[2][5]

Yanouh is known for its 2nd century CE Roman temple, its Byzantine basilica and medieval chapel. In 750 AD, at the time of the fifth Maronite patriarch, John Maron II, then installed in Yanouh, the Roman temple was converted into a church consecrated to Saint George. Between 750 and 1277, twenty-three successors of Patriarch John Maroun resided there; under the Crusades, the number of Yanouh's inhabitants had risen to 3500, while the churches numbered more than thirty-five. Yanouh is also notable for its Hellenistic cult building containing the earliest Aramaic inscription found in Lebanon.[2][5]

  1. ^ a b French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (2009-03-31). Tell Yanouh. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  2. ^ a b c Discover Lebanon. "The village of Yenouh". Discover Lebanon. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  3. ^ "Elections municipales et ikhtiariah au Mont-Liban" (pdf). Localiban. Localiban. 2010. p. 19. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  4. ^ "Yanouh". Localiban. Localiban. 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  5. ^ a b Service de communication, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée (2006-11-10). "Yanouh et le Nahr Ibrahim". Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée (in French). Retrieved 2010-08-14.