History

In the past, Klayaat was called "Faqih", a Syriac name meaning "the rifted", as three of its sides are separated from the main mountain. As for the name "Klayaat", it was picked by the locals who inhabited it later on. "Klayaat" is the plural form of "Kouleyaah", which means in Arabic "a small fortress", knowing that any mountain located on rocky hills is usually called "fortress".

The start of the nineteenth century witnessed the complete formation of the Klayaat community, which gathered through the years a number of families such as Abi Najem, Abi Rached, Bueiz, Hujeili, Hakim, Hantush, Khalifeh, Daghfal, Bou Jebrayel, Rishani, Reef, Saad, Sfeir, Saliba, Kahi, Kassab, Chidiac, Mubarak, Mdawar, Zgheib, Mhanna, Ghanem, Nassar, Maalouf, Khazen, Malkan, Wakim, Jeara, Jamous, Nader, Karam, Wehbe, Zeitouni and Barkha.

As for the notorious remains of the Klayaati community between the settling of the locals' grandparents and the provincial era, they are convents and churches.

In fact, Father Gerges Sfeir and his brother Nader built the St George convent in 1696 on a Klayaat land known as Roumieh. This convent was turned in 1817 into a public school for the Maronite community and the clericals.

In 1927, the Lebanese Maronite Monastic Order established in Marah El Mir a vast monastery named after St Roukoz.

In 1873, Klayaatis built the St Simon of the Stylite church, while the Kassab family built their own church named after Virgin Mary, and the Khazen family built their church as well, which they called St Theresa. During the French mandate, Klayaat witnessed a remarkable boom thanks to the provided infrastructure in terms of water and electricity, as well as the establishment of the municipality in 1929 and the Klayaat Residents Charitable Association.