This famous village is some 56 kilometers from Damascus, built on a mountain at an altitude of more than 1500 meters.  

Its little houses cling to the face of an enormous rock. There are two monasteries here: Saint Sergius and Saint Taqla’s. 

The old Syrian dialect, known to philologists as "western Aramaic"- an extremely ancient language, spoken in the Middle East in the first millennium before Christ- is still spoken in Maalula today. This language was the language spoken by Christ; The monks of Mar Sarkis have recorded the Lord's prayer in Aramaic so that visitors may experience it in its original form.