Miscellaneous Lebanon

And now I am back in Hawler, but I already miss Lebanon... and not just the sushi! On my last day, both D and I (separately) discovered a bunch of lovely cafes where it is possible to sit and enjoy a superb cappuccino while reading a book undisturbed and un-stared-at. The one below is not in Beirut, but in Baalbek.
And I already regret that I didn't make more time to explore quirky shopping venues. The one below is triangular-shaped; two glass and steel walls and one constructed to blend in with the ancient sites (stone walls studded with cross-sections of marble columns... not visible in photo).
It is nice to be able to walk safely in he evenings around atmospheric and historic churches and mosques...
To visit ruins and hill/mountaintop views (unfortunately this one is of the not-so-beautiful Tripoli)...
And finally, I really really miss the seaside!

Soap!

So what did we buy in Lebanon? Soap, soap and more soap! When in Beirut, we laughed when J told us about the Soap Museum in Sidon... but after reading about it and the Audi family in his inflight magazine, we decided to go and found that it was actually really interesting.
But in Tripoli, the seeming important of soap was even greater than in Sidon... Below is an abandoned courtyard in an old souk where you can see old tools of the soap trade just sitting there...
The photo below shows soap shavings. What you can't see is how strongly fragrant these shavings were... It was impossible not to go in and purchase some soap. I brought some from this shop which was scented with Jasmin... I wanted to send this one home with a gift for my mother, but when I unpacked my bags, the friend who was with me absconded with the jasmin soap.

Later in Tripoli, when we finally returned from the trip up to the castle and were trying to find a restaurant, we were grabbed by a lady who took us to her family's soap factory. Of course I bought a couple of cakes of soap, this time pine-scented. The photo below is her husband who is busy shaping the marbled soap balls that Tripoli is famous for.

Back in Beirut - March 25

On my last day in Beirut, I just ran around (camera-less) doing all those last minute things that were as yet undone; J and I went to the National Museum, I did a little shopping in Hamra and then joined D for dinner - last chance for sushi for a while (ah... salmon sashimi, grilled eel, salmon roe temaki, miso soup...)

The few photos below are from our first days in Beirut:
This first photo is taken at the beautiful American University of Beirut... Wow! Now this would be a lovely campus to work at. Below is J appreciating a Banyon tree on the campus.
The two photos below are taken at the corniche near to where our hotel was... On our second to last night, we rounded the corner to see the famous pigeon rock, but again... no photos... Sorry.

And last photo is of the inside of a church on the AUB campus where J and I went on our first night in Leabnon to see a cello/piano concert. I am waiting for the day when I can do this in Erbil.

From the Road - March 24th

As I didn't take any photos on the drive back to Beirut, where we again drove around and around (trying to find a mall we had passed on the way to and from Byblos) until finally dropping off our bags at the hotel and the car at the rental office, I would like to share instead a few photos from our week on the road taken at different spots along the way.
The above photo was taken outside our hotel in Tyre before heading into the mountains which eventually defeated us and sent us back on our way towards Beirut and Byblos.
Windmills! If I ever go to Lebanon again, I will skip MacDonald's and KFC and head instead to the Wooden Bakery, which is apprently Leabnon's only local franchise. Bakeries in the past in Lebanon all ground their flour with windmills!
Just before getting turned back to Beirut, we came across the Beaufort Castle, a castle or fort used by the Crusaders in the 12th Century, but well off the beaten tourist trail. We couldn't even find this site in the Lonely Planet! According to Wikipedia, during the Lebanese civil war this castle was held by the PLO, which used the castle to fire rockets into northern Israel.

I wasn't sure if I should post the photo of the offensive wall illustration below(sighted near to the Israeli border), but I don't want to give the impression that Lebanon is free from troubles. Noting racist and extremist ideas that exist here in the more remote and less affluent parts of Lebanon make it clear why the soldiers at one of the checkpoints in this region didn't want us to continue traveling on the road close to Israel (and subsequently told us we had to go back to Beirut and approach Baalbek from there). Truly it seemed this region, unlike Beirut and most of the other lovely and somewhat liberal cities and towns we visited, was supported by and supportive of the Hezbollah... Yellow Hezbollah flags and pictures of bearded men and even one of the Ayatollah Khomeni were displayed everywhere here... stark contrast to the lush green hills and beautiful valleys.
And finally, a visual description of the kinds of meals we ate while on the roads... somewhat different from the Lebanese mezze and seafood delights we enjoyed in the towns. While Kurdistan hasn't yet been infiltrated by American fast food franchises (only fakes - a Ma Donal's in Sulemaniya and perhaps soon the K [for Kurdistan] FC my colleagues are thinking of starting in Erbil), I realized that truly the fakes can't be much worse than "the real thing". Unfortunately for J who kept telling us to look out for Hardee's, we didn't have time or the opportunity to stop at one.

Chateau Ksara... & Anjar - March 23

On March 23rd, we got off to a little bit of a late start as in the 30 minute chill period- the one after breakfast and before taking to the roads, we discovered that the movie "The Shining" was on... something we had seen the start of in our hotel rooms in Tripoli, but couldn't stay awake for. (Of course I was the only one who had never seen this classic before). After the Shining, we drove out of the valley and visited the oldest of Bekkha Valley's (and Lebanon's) winery - now no longer Caves du Ksara, but Chateau Ksara.

After our tour of the winery (which was only in recent times sold by the Jesuits who discovered the natural caves formerly used by the Romans under the establishment - an environment perfect for storing wine), we were pretty hungry and headed to Anjar- lunch before ruins. Now largely inhabited by Armenians who escaped from Turkey during the genocide, Anjar is famous (with respect to food) for trout which the Armenians have farmed. (PS. The owners/managers of our hotel in Zahle are also Armenians who escaped from Diyarbakir in East Turkey - now a Kurdish stronghold. The youngest of hotel employees have never actually been to Diyarbakir however).

In the 8th century, Aanjar or Haoush Mousa (farm of Moses) was a Umayyad stronghold... a kind of capital of the Isalmic empire (before it was moved to Damascus). As you can see from the photos below, the ruins are really well preserved. The inhabitants of the city in the 8th Centiry were really resourceful as there is evidence of them recycling stones and columns they discovered from past empires and surrounding sites.
As we wandered around what was once small shops, we noted that this site was really primarily just one MASSIVE shopping mall... Our Naza Mall in Erbil looks pretty humble in comparison. However, the walls still standing in the picture below were part of a palace wall...
And the final picture (below) is Byzantine mosaic from a public bath house.
So long Anjar - back to the Hotel Monte Alberto for the final night before heading back to Zahle.

Onward to Baalbek - March 22

After two failed attempts, we finally made it to Baalbek... We drove back to Byblos after the Cedars and stayed the night (see photo in below post of sunset over Byblos harbour). The hardest part was just getting onto the right road out of Beirut... we must have driven around the city for about an hour. Finally, while consulting the map trying to see how many more kilometers to Baalbek, we saw the incredibly impressive ruins just sitting there off to the left hand side of the road. We stopped the car and a group of hawkers came running to the side of the car trying to sell us old coins, tesbit (prayer beads) and Hezbollah T-shirts. Finally, we made our way past them and into the ruins.
While there is much to be said about Baalbek, I can't find the words... nor did I find the write up in the guide books to be much more than a description of what the site must have looked like long ago. An area with Christians (or Maronites to be exact) and Muslims, the explanation of the pagan religious practices once observed here were not ignored... (I mention this because here in Kurdistan, even the museum in Sulemaniya does not dare suggest pagan origins of any site or artifact or label the ancient discoveries accurately - is it shameful to label a small statuette as a mother goddess figure? Additionally, it seems many Kurds living here do not see the Assyrian ruins discovered in their hometowns in any way related to them). 

In any case, this is not the case in Lebanon: It recongnizes the trade with Egyptians and others and the influences on life... and even those improtant exchanges in much more recent history - like when Sultan Abdülhamid II of Turkey and the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II visited together in 1898. I recommend you view the photos below and then just look up the history if you are interested... 

Beautiful temple of Bacchus pictured above. J, who had visited Athens in his past travels, said that the Parthenon would be completely overshadowed by this site... the only advantage of the Parthenon being that it is on a hill and looks nice illuminated at night.

And above are the largest columns ever discovered... absolutely huge... And amazing... Each contained holes in the base, which were used to insert triangular irons bits which were expanded inside and used - with the aid of pulleys and ancient "cranes" to hoist the columns. Amazing what people accomplished in the past. The buildings at this site were never completely finished, but each took about 200+ years to build. The huge columns were part of what was once the Temple of Jupiter.
And finally, after struggling to avoid the touts and hawkers, we decided NOT to stay in Baalbek and sip drinks in the foyer of the Palmyra Hotel, but to backtrack to Zahle and sleep in the Hotel Monte Alberto with its kitsch revolving restaurant and funicular to summer terrace and enjoy the above view of the valley watched over by a monumental statue of Santa Maria perched on stair-cased pedestal high on a hill.

Becharre & the Cedars - March 21

Hometown of author/poet/artist Gibran Khalil, Becharre was the first stop after Tripoli. We skirted the Qadisha Valley (which apparently is studded with monasteries and shrines to various saints cut into the sides of the mountains), and arrived to breathtaking views from the top of the mountains.
To the left is the huge bust of Gibran at the museum built in his honor and housing his tomb.
Above is a Phoenician tomb and monument which I actually didn't hike up to (but Dirk did). I was (as usual) too busy trying to find a rest room... which incidentally were clean and had paper in all locations in Lebanon.
Above and below are the Qadisha Valley which resounded with the sound of church bells, not as in Tripoli with the call to prayer.
And finally, we reached the Cedars... a popular ski resort and home of the last of the ancient forest of Cedars represented on Lebanon's flag.
After lunch and a bit of time playing in the snow, we headed on to Baalbek... only to be turned back... AGAIN! This time, not by soldiers at a checkpoint, but by snow. The roads (which were clear all the way through the mountains to the Cedars were completely snowed in and for a second time, our attempts to drive inland to Baalbek were foiled!

Byblos to Tripoli - March 20

Seeing as Byblos was just the most fabulous city with the most comfortable hotel (aptly named Comfort Hotel) of our stay, it doesn't really seem fair that it has to share this post with Trpoli, but that's the time frame of our visit. After driving for hours through tiny winding roads taking us up and around and over mountains trying to get to Baalbek (on the east coast of Lebanon) from Tyre, we were finally turned away by soldiers at a checkpoint... apparently we had ventured too far over towards "Palestine" and too deep into areas controlled by the Hezbollah and we had to head back to Beirut... so rather than keep trying, we just continued up along the western coast to Byblos (about 90 minutes from Beirut). We ate and slept and saw Byblos the next morning.

The above photos show the site at Byblos... also known as Gebal and Jbeil. (PS. You might be interested to know that we noticed a sign in the Erbil airport announcing the opening of Byblos Bank on the 60 Meter Road right here in Hawler!). These sights were very interesting to note that they had found evidence of city-living here dating back to the Bronze and Iron ages, the Hellenistic period, not to mention Byzantine and Roman empire remains, evidence of Egyptian and Phoenician trade and influence, the arrival of the Crusaders, the Persians and others... and all of this was very clearly signposted in English, French and Arabic by.... the Governate of Antiquities of QUEBEC!
And there are so many other photos I'd like to include here... like the picture of construction on a main street through the Bazaar, which appeared to be dug up for city waterworks... a project that was clearly on hold as the workers apparently accidentally unearthed Byzantine (I guess) mosaic flooring. But instead I leave you with the image of a sunset over the harbour... where we later (days later) stopped to have a nice fish dinner at a restaurant with a view and very surly wait staff.
After viewing the sites of Byblos in the rain, we hit the road again to our last coastal and most northerly destination, Tripoli. This proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Although apparently one a beautiful city (which vied with Sidon for the production and export of soap), the buildings all scaling the sides of a small mountain, are now weathered and ugly... even the recently constructed ones. The city streets were narrow and hard to navigate, so we finally settled on a 4 star (the one of this caliber on our trip) hotel down by the water and taxied in to the city to see the "sights". Below is my trusty colleagues standing at the entrance to a medieval souk where we bought (what else?) soap!
And this final picture was the highlight of Tripoli... a beautiful crusader castle later used by the Ottomans. Soldiers still appeared to be using this well-preserved castle and although the sight of the city down the side of the hills wasn't so lovely, overhead flocks of birds adorned with tiny bells swooped overhead, following the instructions of their owners who seemed to be whistling and cooing instructions to the bids from their high-rise apartment windows.

Tyre (Sour or Sur) and onwards - March 19th

At the end of the first day of driving, we reached another Phoenician city at the Southern-most tip of Lebanon. It was apparently once an island connected by a causeway (built by Alexander the Great?) and was famous as the Tyrian merchants (the first to navigate the Mediterranean) made famous the purple dye of the nobility - Tyrian purple.
After arriving, we settled into our hotel in the Christian quarter in Christian quarter and walked along the cornich and viewed the archaeological sites... the last one reached just before sundown (pictured below). As you walk down the long road, it is entirely possible to imagine Roman visitors driving chariots down this road... all the stones still in place, with aquaducts and evidence of real city planning! The two photos below show the Al Mina archaeological site - the first one we encountered on our stroll of the cornich - this one with a public bath, a Roman theater, palace site and another road lined with imposing columns.

These final two photos show the harbour... just a couple of minutes from our hotel. This was the view from the restaurant "Le Phoenician" where we enjoyed garlic basted prawns, calamari, little achovy-sized crispy fish, fatoush salad and wine from the Bekkha Valley in Lebanon.

How hard it is going to be returning to land-locked Kurdistan?

Sidon (Saida) - March 18th

On March 18th, we got up early and headed for the car rental office to pick up the little VW Polo which was to serve us well for the next 7 days.
We immediately headed for the water and followed the coast South until we hit Sidon (or Saida as it is called in Lebanon), one of the most important Phoenician cities. But like other Lebanese cities, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans also resided (ruled) here. Wikipedia says that Herod the Great, Jesus and Saint Paul visited Sidon. The city was eventually conquered by the Arabs and then by the Ottoman Turks.
For me, I found the winding souks and craftsmen working in tiny shops to be much like Mardin in North Kurdistan (East Turkey). Our first stop (after the bathroom), was the Soap Museum (photo above). Apparently, the Aud family in Sidon had to compete with soap companies in Tripoli (in the North of Lebanon) and Damascus to sell their slippery wares to Europe and beyond. We must have made a funny sight in Sidon, me following closely on the heels of two Western guys all the while tightly grasping the handle of a menacing looking wooden rolling pin I bought in the bazaar.
The next three photos are of the Sea Castle (there was apparently also a land castle, but there is now little left of that one worth visiting). The Castle was built by the Crusaders in the 13th century.



This last picture just shows J, who manned the wheel of our VW vehicle for our whole journey. In the background you can see part of the port, cranes and a small boat.... It seems the name "Sidon" actually means fishery!

Beautiful Beirut - March 17th

On the first day of our little break, we 3 teachers from Kurdistan set out to explore the city of Beirut. We started out on the corniche and walked along the edge of the Mediterranean to the downtown core. One of the things that first struck my attention was how beautifully archaeological discoveries had been incorporated into the design of the modern city. The first two pictures below show the remains of a Roman bath which line both sides of a staircase leading to another commercial street, but are surrounded with walkways with trees and benches for people to sit and enjoy the view.

And the photo below, while is of more ruins sort of opposite from the Virgin Megastore. Yes, this was one of the first stops; a chance to buy NON-PIRATED DVDs and newly released novels in English (although there is an even larger selection in French).
Although some denigrate the reconstruction of Beirut as a kind of poor-quality facelift, for us coming from Erbil, it was pretty impressive. Like in Erbil, you could pass by areas with clusters of giraffe-like cranes stretching their necks out in every direction... but unlike Erbil, there was no evidence of abandoned construction sites and buildings in early states of construction did not already look ready to fall as in some parts of Asia.
In the picture above, Dirk has just come to the end of a street lined on both sides with red heated tents sheltering the outdoor tables of the restaurants on either side of the street... mostly Lebanese mezze and classic Italian cuisine...
And we finally come to a square with a church sporting a mosaic of St. George fighting the dragon... behind which sits a mosque.