LEBANON
itinerary:
2006.02.25 - 2006.03.04
arrived at the airport and took a cheap minibus for LL1000 instead of a 'real' taxi for $15. thanks to the lp forum i had read that you should go upstrairs to the arrivals and get a minibus from there. downstairs all the cabdrivers expect at least $15, but the start at $25.
that was a good start, only it took me several hours to find my hotel once i was dropped in the center. i ended up asking a taxidriver to phone the hotel, which turned out to be only 50m from where we we standing...
still, the hotel was cheap and clean, free internet and cheap cold beer. just like home.
ah well. i started my first full day in lebanon with a coffee on the boulevard looking out over the mediterranean
sea.
one would expect a destroyed city, what with the (civil) wars and all, but the seafront is full with big fancy hotels. and place de martyre (or downtown according to the locals, damn guidebook) was surrounded with expensive restaurants and shops like virgin megastore and cartier. still, there are a few heavily blasted buildings, but you nearly have to actively go looking for them. lots of bullet holes though...
that's just downtown of course. after the war they cleaned it up bigtime, but large parts of the city still have severe war wounds.
after wandering for most of the morning i deceided to grab a minibus to saida. an important phoenician city, maybe the oldest. the local craftsmen, besides be renowned for their maritime trading culture, were then praised by the greeks and romans for their glasswork and purple dyes. there is still a large mound of murex trunculus snail shells (purple dyes) at the edge of the city center.
through the centuries it has been conquered by the philistines, assyrians, babylonians, egyptians, greeks and romans. by then biblical figures herod the great, jesus christ and his apostle paul had all been spotted, it seems.
after several centuries of relative peace saida was conquered / destroyed by crusaders, saracens and mongols,
finishing it's importance more or less.
there's a small crusaders castle, built in the 12th century (first crusade), protecting the harbour. the walls were reinforced using roman columns. the harbour itself has long silted up permitting only small fisher boats to dock, further diminshing the population of the city through the centuries.
proof of the history of trade are the several karavanserei. one of the larger one's had a hariri exposition. he was
assassinated in 2005 in beirut and the country is plastered with posters and pictures of him. billboards, shops,
cars...
the medina was quite nice as well, in very good nick i filled the rest of the afternoon with coffee and waterpipe looking out over the mediteranian sea.
day two i went to tyre, also a phoenician city. originally two parts, one of which was built on a small island just
off the coast.
i took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at the smaller section of ruins in the city (the former island). luckily actually, as the larger section was much more interesting, and tiring.
lots and lots of columns, mosaic and foundations. interesting, not quite impressive. i was told that at low tide there are several more columns visible in the sea by somebody trying to sell roman coins.
the second section had an extensive necropolis leading to alexander's triumphal arch. alexander the great besieged
the city for seven months, finally using the deserted suburbs (on the coast) to build a causeway to reach the island.
alexander was so inraged with the loss of so many men the population of tyre were massacred or sold into slavery.
as the ruins were roman it's unlikely the arch is really dedicated to alexander.
and there's a large hippodrome for chariot races, large enough for ben hur at least! i had already walked half way
around it looking for the entrance, and it seemed there were parts of spectator stands at the far end forcing me to
walk the whole way around the race course again.
back to saida to get transport to beit ed dine in the mountains. somebody put me in a minibus towards beirut,
which i was kicked out of on the highway at the correct turnoff. only about 35km from where i wanted to be...
fortunatly i was picked up by some palastinian-born canadian-kuweiti who had hired a taxi for the day.
on the way we stopped at deir el qamar, a small 16th century castle with mosque, church and synagoge. we got a tour
which my new-found-friend kindly translated.
there we were told that beit ed dine was closed that day (bummer) for non-disclosed reasons (?). my palastinian-born canadian-kuweiti deceided to continue on to saida. i had been there, so back to beirut. i was dropped near highway where i could wait for somebody to pick me up.
day three was baalbek. a good two hours drive deep into the beqaa valley, hezbollah country. on the way i had to
change minibusses because there weren't enough passengers to continue. unfortunatly the second minibus didn't get
very far, after about 500m it just gave up. this happened just after one of the several military checkpoints and
the guards there fond it quite hilarious. anyway, baalbek at last.
known to the romans as heliopolis it was one of the largest sanctuaries in the empire. before then it was the site of a phoenician oracle, which the romans respected and built on. the phoenician name is derived from "lord (baal) of the beqaa (valley)".
i had seen photos before, but i didn't expect the ruins complex to be so big, or so deserted. i saw a total of ten other tourists, two brits (plus local guide) and a group of eight koreans, who i met again in the citadel in tripoli.
bacchus was the main theme. there's a large temple dedicated to the deity dominating the scene, but this was the
smaller of the three temples. bacchus is known as the god of wine (among other things, like sex, drugs and rock n roll)
and was worshipped by the romans and greeks. he is even mentioned as dionysus on mycenian linear b tablets, so he obviously
and older god addopted by the greeks (and then by the romans as bacchus).
there are ivy and grapevine carvings aplenty on the walls in- and outside the temple. several columns have fallen
over along one side of the temple and the roof has fallen in. a massive keystone hovering several meters above
the entrance, fixed in place by german archaeologists around 1900, seems to float unnaturally. spooky, until you can
see from the inside it's quite firmly fixed.
the jupiter temple was little more than a few columns, but the original size and grandeur was obvious. here jupiter
was identified with the sun, hence heliopolis. several roman emperors added to the complex over the years, including
nero who added a tower-altar opposite the temple, and traianus added a hexagonal forecourt (the only roman hexagonal
forecourt anywhere, to be precise). this temple supposedly had the largest columns in the roman empire, etc, etc. but
then again, don't they all say something like that?
there was more, venus' temple was reduced to the usual few columns and lots of stones. idem dito for the odeon. and a small museum which might have been interesting if it hadden't been for the lack of lights (and it being built in a cave).
as i made my way back into the village i saw several tourist shops and i noticed the first busloads of tourists
arriving. hmm, i guess i was just in time...
the town has hezbollah flags flying from every lamppost and trafficsign. even on top of the local mosque. most shops have hezbollah t-shirts for sale, obviously for the tourists. i was able to convince a reluclant shopkeeper to sell me a weather-worn flag instead, even though it wasn't for sale. makes a nice souvenir.
time for ice cream. i deceided it should be safe enough, even though i didn't trust the tap water. and if i did get "the kathmandu quickstep" i would be (nearly) home. otherwise some loperamide (imodium) should do the trick...
my fourth day brought byblos, known as jbeil in arabic (from the phoenician gebal). it is believed to be the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. the greeks named is byblos because egyptian papyrus (bublos) was imported from there. or is it the other way around?
the first settlers appeared around 5000 bc and it has been populated (conquered, dominated) since then by the phoenicians, alexander,
romans, persians, crusaders, arabs, crusaders, arabs, crusaders, arabs, ottomans, french and the syrian. but i guess that counts for all of lebanon...
a linear alphabetic script consisting of 22 letters was developed before 1000 bc. several modern alphabets are thought to be derived from this, including arabic, greek (and cyrillic), latin and hebrew. the phoenicians were also early adapters of coinage and trade flourished during roman rule. eventually trade with europe dried up, possibly due to the nearby, and larger, tyre and saida.
the 11th century brought crusaders with their castles during the first of their expeditions. and prosperity returned. saladin took the town
during the third crusade but it changed hands several times during the several other crusades that followed.
the castle had a good museum consisting mainly of maps and posters showing the growth thought the ages. little to no artifacts but very imformative.
i was nearly run over by a priest rushing to give mass, so i followed him into the medieval church and sneakily recorded some of the
aramaic spoken service.
the maronite church, dating back to the 5th century, is a part of the eastern catholic church and forms one of the principal religious groups in lebanon. being monastic they escaped persecution not just by muslims, but also by the different christian factions. they supported the crusaders on their second visit, reaffirming their affiliation with the pope after several centuries of seclusion in the mountains
day five. tripoli was, of course, run over by the usual suspect through the centuries. the crusader castle, built in
the first round, proved good enough to withstand a seven year siege in the aftermath of the first crusade. this
resulted in a crusader state, the county of tripoli, a vassal state of the kingdom of heaven. they also survived
the second (1147) and third (1187) crusades. the city fell to sultan qalawun in 1289, bringing the county to an end.
the castle has been used, renovated and updated ever since.
once a phoenician city and having a seaport, tripoli naturally has a history of trade. it's name points to the
confederation between tyre, sidon, and arados (in syria).
today it's still lebanon's second largest city and port. the extensive souks provided a pleasent shade, and i just love wandering, sucking up the atmosphere, munching mixed nuts bought in said souk.
the tailor's khan, one of the oldest in tripoli, was once a safe haven for weary long distance merchants. so, just like an olden day trucker hotel?
among the noumerous mosques in the city you will find the inevitable grand mosque. it has been redesigned over the
years as can be seen by the bell tower now minaret. there was a military truck parked just outside, with guards,
screwing up my photo options.