Religious Tourism
NEOS is a tour operator specialized in religious tourism and pilgrimages. Lebanon is a multi-confessional state, where you can count around 18 different religious communities. One of the phenomenal privileges of Lebanon is that you can discover all these communities willing to live together peacefully in the same Land. Lebanon is an integral part of the biblical land of Christ: in Tyre, you can envision Christ as he preached to the multitudes, in Cana he performed his first miracle, in Maghdouche Virgin Mary waited for him.
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Jesus Christ was the first to evangelize Lebanon. Then, the Holy Scriptures report that Jesus prophesied and did miracles in the area running from Tyre to Sidon, the first one being water turned into wine in Cana. Jesus even praised the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon for their faith. Talking to the Pharisees, he reminded them of the prophet Elijah (Elie) being fed, during a starvation, by a widow from Sarepta (south of Sidon). We also know that up on Mount Hermon, Jesus was transfigured in front of his apostles.
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Saint Paul often visited the Christians living on the Lebanese coast, going through Tyre before being arrested. From north to south and east to west, crossing Bekaa plains and mountains, one can find a place of worship for all confessions. The harmonious relationships existing in such a multiconfessional country show how much: the principles of faith, respect, tolerance and friendship are deeply rooted as values of its foundations.
The Middle East belongs to the Arab world. It is the very place where different faiths meet. Islam is often linked and associated to this geographical place but other religions are also very present since this is where monotheistic religions first started to exist with two major places of pilgrimage= Jerusalem, known in the three monotheistic religions as a holy place and Mecca, worshipped by Muslim people. Concurrently to these two places, there is a developed net of holy places where an important devotion exists for saints, prophets and so on.
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