Yanta is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

situated in

Rashaya District Rashaya District ( ar, قضاء راشيا) is an administrative district in the Beqaa Governorate of the Republic of Lebanon. Most of Rachaya's population are Druze with a Sunni and Shia and Christian Christians () are people who follow ...

Beqaa Governorate Beqaa ( ') is a governorate in Lebanon. Districts Since 2014, Beqaa Governorate contains three districts: * West Beqaa * Rashaya * Zahle A law was passed in 2003 to separate Baalbek District and Hermel District from Beqaa Governorate to form a ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, from

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. It is located close to the Syrian border north of Kfar Qouq. The village sits about above sea level. The name is variously claimed to mean "God sows" or "God the sower" in Semitic, "white dove" in

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

and "elevation" in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

.Qada' (Caza) Rachaya - Promenade Tourist Brochure, published by The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism
/ref> It has been noted that a special type of yellow marl (lake sediments) has been noticed in Yanta and the surrounding area dated to the Oxfordian. In 2001 and 2002, archaeological studies were carried out at Kamid al lawz near Yanta that unearthed a large amount of

Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

Roman temple

There are ruins of an impressively sized and positioned

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of ...

in the area that is presumed to have been built on the site of a forerunning Semitic temple. The ruins lie on either side of the road and are sparse but retain some upright stones. Around the site are remnants of ancient habitation and tombs.

References

External links

Ikema guide to Lebanon - Yanta

Localiban Entry on Yanta

The Lebanon Mountain Trail Project

* ttp://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/mot/photobase/images/MT5/JPEG0048.html American University of Beirut - Image of Yanta Roman Temple 2 {{Portal, Lebanon, History, Asia Populated places in Rashaya District Archaeological sites in Lebanon Ancient Roman temples