When Michline Zarour talks— anything from telling a friend a joke to whispering a lullaby to her son—she does so in Aramaic, the same language Jesus is said to have spoken. Zarour is from the small Syrian village of Maaloula, one of the few places left where Western Aramaic, Christ’s mother tongue, is still used in daily life.
“Maaloula is a magical town, and nothing like it will ever exist again throughout time. I am lucky to belong to this sacred place,” Zarour says. She certainly isn’t wrong: Her village is nestled in a cleft in the rugged limestone hills of the high-altitude Qalamoun Mountains. Squat, sun-bleached homes and churches cascade down the slopes. Steep and narrow alleys snake toward ancient monasteries overlooking the vast, arid valley below. The village’s name—derived from the Aramaic word ma’la, which means “entrance”— aptly reflects the setting: the mouth of a dramatic gorge.
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