The city is known for its ancient caves, most notably the
Iskafta cave (where, in 1930, a thirty-year-old German traveller and self-taught archaeologist
Alfred Rust made many important pre-historical findings), which dates back to a period known as
Jabroudian culture, named after Yabroud; and the Yabroud temple, which was once
Jupiter Yabroudiss temple but later became "
Konstantin and Helena Cathedral". Yabroud is home of the oldest
church in Syria. Yabroud was mentioned in the pottery tablets of
Mesopotamia in the first century
B.C., and
Ptolemy's writings in the second century
A.D. In 1838, its inhabitants were
Sunni Muslim,
Melkite Catholic and
Greek Orthodox Christians. During the
Syrian Civil War the city was the center of the
Battle of Yabroud in March 2014. The city was held by rebels from 2011 to 2014, before being retaken by
Ba'athist Syria and was one of the last places the rebels controlled in the
Qalamoun Mountains along the Lebanese border. ==Notable people==