The historic old church of the monastery was built in 1121 on the ruins of a pagan temple, which is said to have been dedicated to the god Il or to Venus-Astarté. Remnants of the temple can be seen on the exterior walls of the church by the entrance, where a stone resembling the curved head of a bull is visible.

The inscription above the gate reveals that the church and the monastery were not built at the same time. The Syriac words carved on the slab above the lintel of the western door of the monastery indicate that the construction of the church ended in 1277. The church includes a bema (characteristic of the patriarchal churches), with stairs leading to it to the western side of the church.

The monastery suffered a series of attacks and was abandoned for a long period of time. After the church was renovated in 1746 and in 1766, the Maronite Order assumed the affairs of Saydet Ilige. Monks worked hard to rebuild the monastery and more restoration, undertaken by the General Directorate of Antiquities, took place in the 1970s.

Since then, the Lebanese Maronite Order, assisted by the local municipalities, has continued to preserve the monastery’s surrounding. A sanctuary dedicated to Saydet El Hazineh (Our Lady of Sorrows) can be visited via a path to the south side of the monastery.

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