A few kilometers away from the city of Sidon in Southern Lebanon in the Christian village of Maghdouché lies the Melkite Shrine of Saydet El Mantara (Our Lady of Waiting), a Lebanese treasure and pilgrimage site still unbeknownst to many.

After many years of increased effort lead by the Bishop of Sidon Mgr. Elie Haddad along with a team of experts specialised in tracing the pedestrian routes followed by Jesus in South Lebanon, the site was recognized as an international Marian Shrine in 2016.

The sanctuary is located at the top of a hill, overlooking the coast and the city of Sidon. It consists of a tower crowned with the statue of the Virgin and Child, a cathedral, a cemetery and a sacred cave believed to be where the Virgin Mary rested and waited on Jesus when he preached in Sidon.

Some historians argue the worship of Mary by the Lebanese stems from their Pheonician ancestry and devotion to Astarthe as many places of worship dedicated to the goddess were later converted into Christian shrines and temples, including the Shrine of Saydet el Mantara.

The first Marian Shrine was built in 324 AD by the Emperor Constantine the Great at the request of his mother Saint Helena. The Shrine consisted of a tower, but unfortunately no traces are left as it was entirely destroyed in 550 AD after the earthquake. The Mantara grotto was then magically rediscovered centuries later in the 1720s by a shepherd when one of his sheep fell into a crevasse leading to the cave.

A Marian Shrine was then built in 1860 by the Melkite Church. A cemetery was also set up in its enclosure. The Mantara cave was later transformed into a church in the 1960s along with a 36-metre-high tower with a chapel at its base and a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary bearing Jesus Christ at its top.