The Castle was built in the center of the village, on a hill showing the entire neighborhood. Most of the historians recognize that the castle was built by the Phoenicians, and was under the Persian Empire control in 555 B.C. It passed to the hands of Alexander of Macedon's (the Great) in 331 B.C. In the Middle Ages, the Maronites and their army the Maradaites took the castle as a refuge and it was the See of the First Maronite Catholic Patriarch Saint John Maron before he moved to Kfarhay. The Mardaites counterattacked their enemies from Smar Jbeil and they won the battle in Amyoun (30 km north) while defending their Patriarch.