Ancient Remains
(45 km from Batroun)

    Northwest of Douma and two kilometers north of Bshe'le village, are extensive remains of a religious or military settlement from the Romano-Byzantine era. The site may also have been a Canaanite "high place."
    Situated above the hilltop Maronite monastery of Mar Yaqoob (St. James), the ruins and the  panoramic view are well worth the effort of getting there. The ruins is a jumble of stone blocks, some quarried building stones, others natural. Remains of walls, basins or reservoirs, shaft tombs cut into the rock and other structures can be discerned. The entire site is littered with pottery shreds. West of these remains is what appears to be a stone sacrifice. Shaped like a mushroom, it is surrounded by a man-made circular indentation which drains into a deep groove, possible to receive the blood of a sacrifice.