Basilica of Our Lady of Mantara

#ancientcities The town of Maghdouche in Sidon District officially enters the world religious tourism map through the Shrine of "Our Lady of Mantara" after the United Nations World Tourism Organization decided to approve it, following the efforts of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism and the "In the Footsteps of Christ in South Lebanon" Association, in cooperation with the Greek Melkite Catholic Diocese of Sidon, headed by Bishop Elie Haddad. Two reasons prompted the World Tourism Organization to approve it, the first is because "Our Lady of Mantara" is a place that has become scientifically agreed upon as one of the places that Jesus Christ visited, and that he used to come to the coast of Tyre and Sidon with his mother, the Virgin Mary, so he would leave her and go down to preach in the coastal cities, so she would wait for him in the Maghdouche Cave, which became known as the Cave of Our Lady of Mantara, and the second is because several Italian and then Polish missions and Lebanese archaeologists have determined that this site is an archaeological site dating back to 2000 years ago, meaning that it is an archaeological area with its historical and spiritual dimensions and an extension of the Holy Land from Jerusalem through Galilee to Lebanon. What is remarkable is that once the approval to join the world tourism map was granted, the name of Our Lady of Mantara entered 400,000 new sites in world tourism, and tourism agencies and offices included the site in their tourist trips to Lebanon, while the Ministry of Tourism promised to put up signs and banners guiding to the site from the coastal road starting from Sidon and reaching Maghdouche, while the Greek Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Sidon began establishing a tourist hotel in the vicinity of the Maghdouche Basilica with about 20 rooms to attract tourists who visit the area for religious tourism. Address : G9GJ+VCX, Maghdoucheh, Lebanon