Today was strictly a tourist day. We had no official mine action activities. We began the day with a trip of about 2 hours northeast of Beirut to Baalbek, home to the most impressive ancient site in Lebanon and arguably the most important Roman site in the Middle East.
The site was originally Phoenician and settlement here is thought to have dated back as early as the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. The Phoenicians built a temple on the site in the 1st millennium B.C. and dedicated the temple to the god Baal, from which the city takes its name. The site was chosen for its nearby springs and because it was located at the crossroads of the main east-west and north-south trade routes.
Following the conquest of Alexander the Great, Baalbek became known as Heliopolis (City of the Sun), a name that was retained by subsequent Roman conquerors. The city became an official part of the Roman empire in 64 B.C. The Romans began construction of a series of temples in approximately 27 B.C. The first to be built was the massive Temple of Jupiter, which took nearly 120 years to complete and underwent elaborate enlargements soon thereafter. The Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Bacchus (the god of wine) followed. Construction on the site ceased around 310 A.D., when Rome’s rulers adopted Christianity.
It would be difficult to underestimate the impressive nature of these ruins. Photos alone do not do it justice.
When we left Baalbek, we headed back to the south and Beirut, with a couple of stops along the way. The first was the Ksara Winery, Lebanon’s oldest and most famous winery, which, originally, was the site of a medieval fortress. A unique aspect of this winery is its extremely spacious underground caves, where the wine matures.
The caves were first discovered in Roman times and were expanded during World War I. There are now nearly 2 kilometers of tunnels, where the temperature stays between 11C and 13C throughout the year – ideal for wine.
We took a very quick tour of the caves and then sat down to sample some of the winery’s products – four different types of wine and a bit of brandy.
After indulging ourselves, we headed for the village of Aanjar, which is a mere 5 kilometers from the Syrian border. Also referred to as Haouch Moussa (Farm of Moses), Aanjar is a small, predominantly Armenian town founded by refugees who fled Turkey and the “Great Calamity” of 1915, which is said to have claimed the lives of over a million Armenians.
Aanjar’s most remarkable feature is the Umayyad ruins, dating back to the rule of the sixth Umayyad Caliph, Walid I, in the Eighth Century. Its discovery came about almost by accident when, in the late 1940s, archaeologists were digging here in the hope of discovering the ancient city of Chalcis, founded around 1000 B.C. Instead, they uncovered a walled town with a Roman layout that dated from the first century of Islam. This is what gives the site great historical significance.
The ancient Umayyad settlement was inhabited for only about 50 years, before its complete destruction when the Abbasids, a rival sect, overthrew the Umayyad dynasty,
Another terrific and enjoyable day in Lebanon, topped off by an evening of fireworks celebrating the festival marking the end of Ramadan.
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