Ma'Aloula

This picturesque village, a little over an hour's drive from Damascus, is one of the last villages on earth where Aramaic is spoken. While not a dead language per se, Aramaic is largely a liturgical tongue used by Arab Christians, although at the time of Christ it was the lingua franca of much of the Levant. The convent holds the remains of the early Christian saint Thecla, who was a contemporary of Paul.