Lebanon Overview

THE CEDAR AS A CULTURAL ASSET

ImageThe cedar, Lebanon’s national emblem, is an important asset in the country’s national heritage. At first sight it may seem strange that something belonging to the vegetable kingdom should be part of the cultural patrimony. But, as M. Joseph Chami rightly says in an interesting study which inspired this article, the cedar can be classified as an archaeological monument. The 400 cedars of Becharreh are just as valuable historical remains as the ruins of Byblos, Baalbek or Tyre. What is more, they are still-living witnesses of the time when Hiram-Abi of Tyre built the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

In his book on Carthage and its Phoenician antecedents, Pierre Hubac writes: “The cedar is precious, more than precious, it is sacred. In Egypt, the cedar is the Zed tree, the tree that is a god, it is Osiris. It is also incorruptible material that bestows immortality. It is the wood for religious objects. Later, the cedar was to remain the religious wood par excellence: the cedar is the Church. For Islam, the cedar is the sacred wood, the pure wood...”

In nearly all religions and in most literature the cedar - not just any cedar - but the Cedar of Lebanon, has a place apart. It is an object of veneration. It is also a subject of meditation, comparison, exaltation.

All Eastern travelers speak of it, but Lamartine gives the most beautiful description of it: “The Cedars of Lebanon, he says, are the most famous natural monuments in Universe. Religion, poetry and history have all celebrated them because of the reputation for magnificence and holiness that these prodigies of vegetation have enjoyed since the earliest antiquity...These ancient witnesses of past ages know history better than does history itself...”. The Cedar of Lebanon is mentioned in the works of Ovid, in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, in Horace and Persius. There are references to it in Egyptian inscriptions, on Babylonian and Assyrian Steles, in the Universal History of Diodorus Siculus, on the monuments of Greece and Rome and, of course, in Phoenician inscriptions.

It is mentioned in 70 different passages in the Bible. The Prophet Ezekiel gives a moving description of the “Tree of God”: “...a Cedar of Lebanon with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature, and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running about his plants... Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field... All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations...nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.”

The book of Kings describes the building of the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem by engineers and workmen sent by Hiram the King of Tyre. There was a lavish use of cedar wood: “And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar, he even built them for it within, even for the most holy place... And the cedar of the house within was carved with knobs and open flowers: all was cedar, there was no stone seen.”.

Isaiah uses the cedar to point a moral when he says that: “ it is the Lord that deals severely with all pride and arrogance, with all greatness, with all the cedars of Lebanon, high and lofty”.

The Psalms tell us that “the righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon”.

The most beautiful of all love songs, the Song of Solomon, describes the beloved as follows: “His countenance is a Lebanon, excellent as the cedars”.

Such is the place occupied by the Cedar of Lebanon in the religious and literary monuments of humanity, a place so important that we can without any exaggeration regard the cedar as a cultural asset.

LEBANON

ImageLebanon has always been a special country. Despite the recent years of war, Lebanon’s long history, natural beauty and the spirit of its people give it a place in the hearts of all who have been there, whether in the halcyon years, or during periods of cisis.

With its legendary hospitality, natural and touristic sites and its delicious food, today more than ever, Lebanon is a unique place to visit.

An independent republic since 1943, it is a compact country of 10,452 square kilometers with a population approaching 4 million.

Lebanon is located at the meeting point of three continents, and over the centuries it has been the crossroads of many civilizations whose traces may still be seen today. Its countryside is a place of rocks, cedar trees and magnificent ruins that look down from the mountains to the sea. In winter the high peaks are covered with snow and in summer their limestone slopes glimmer white in the distance. Two rocky ranges traverse Lebanon parallel to the sea coast, separtatd by the high plateau of the Begaa valley.

On the coast are the five famous cities of Beirut, Byblos, Sidon, Tripoli and Tyre, the names of ancient Phoenicia.

BEIRUT

ImageBeiurt was built on a rocky promontory, a site also occupied by prehistoric man. In ancient times it was overshadowed by more powerful neighbors, but when the city-states of Sidon and Tyre began to decline in the first millennium B.C., Beirut acquired more influence. It was not until Roman times, when it became a Roman colony in about 15 B.C., that Beirut became an important port and cultural center. During the Roman and Byzantine eras it was distinguished for its Law school, whose professors helped draft the famous Justinian Code.

Beirut was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 551 A.D. A century later it was occupied by the Moslem armies and in 1109 it fell to the Crusaders. The city remained in Crusader hands until 1291, when it was conquered by the Mamlukes.

In 1515 the 400-year Ottoman rule began. Later, in the 17th century, Beirut knew a period of great prosperity under the government of Emir Fakhreddine II. Then, with the break-up of the Ottoman empire at the end of World War I, the city became the capital of modern Lebanon.

Modern Beirut, with its million plus inhabitants, remains the cultural and commercial center of the country. Today the war-ruined city center is being reconstructed under a 25-year project that envisages a new modern city that will also retain its familiar oriental flavor.

Such landmarks as Martyrs’ Square, the souks and the Parliament Building, are part of the design, which covers 1.8 million square meters. In extensive archaeological investigations, historical periods ranging from Canaanite (3,000 - 1200 B.c>) to Ottoman (1515 - 1918 A.D.) have been revealed.

BYBLOS (JBAIL)

ImageByblos or Jbail in Arabic is one of the oldest towns in the world, goes back at least 7,000 years. The rise and fall of nearly two dozen successive levels of human culture on this site makes it one of the richest archaeological areas in the country.

Under the domination of the Egyptian pharaohs in the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.c>, Byblos was the commercial and religious capital of the Phoenician coast. It was here that the first linear alphabet, ancestor of all modern alphabets (through Greek and Latin), was invented. The sarcophagus of Byblos’ King Ahiram, now in the National Museum, bears the oldest known Phoenician inscription. Byblos was also the center of the Adonis cult, the god of vegetation who dies in winter and is renewed each spring.

Like its sister cities, Byblos was destroyed in the earthquake of 551 A.D., It regained sone consequence in Crusader times when it came under the County of Tripoli. A modest town under the Mamlukes and Ottomans, Byblos grew rapidly during the recent war in Lebanon when commercial activities moved from Beirut to regional capitals.

The busy modern town, 36 kilometers north of Beirut, has as its touristic hub the Roman-medieval port. In this area are the Crusader Castle and church as well as the extensive remains of the city’s past--from the Neolithic times to the Crusader era. A number of cafes and restaurants as well as an interesting wax museum add to the attractions.

TRIPOLI (TRABLOS)

Tripoli or Trablos in Arabic is some 85 km north of Beirut, shares in the long history of the Levantine coast. The center of a Phgoenician confederation with Sidon, Tyre and Arados Island, its name “Tripolis,” means “triple city.”

Since its foundation, probably in the 9th century B.C., until the end of the Crusader period, Tripoli was situated around the Al-Mina port district. After its destruction by the Mamlukes in 1289, however, it was replaced by a new town near the hill of the Crusader Castle of Raymond de Saint-Gilles, founder of the County of Tripoli. The castle has been renovated and changed may times during its history, most recently in the early 19th century.

Tripoli is a veritable living museum, preserving nearly a hundred important monuments from Crusader, Mamluke and Ottoman times. Distinguished remnants of the Mamluke period include the Great Mosque and the Mosque of Taynal, built with elements from ancient and Crusader monuments, Islamic religious schools known as madrasas, the ancient bazaars, towers, khans (caravansaries) and hammams (baths) add oriental charm to the modern city. Today Tripoli is a prosperous industrial and business center. Known as the capital of the north, it is the second largest city in Lebanon.

SIDON (SAIDA)

ImageSidon or Saida in Arabic is the third great Phoenician city-state, Sidon’s origins are lost in time. But it was towards the end of the 6th century B.C., under the reign of the Persian Darius, that the city experienced its golden age.

Made capital of the Fifth Province of the Persian Empire, Sidon was an open city with many cultural influences, including the Egyptian and Greek. During this period Aegean sculptors contributed to the nearby temple of Eshmoun. Eshmoun, the city’s god, was associated with the Greek Aesculapius, the god of healing.

After its revolt against the Persians and its destruction in 351 B.C., Sidon never regained its former glory. But the city’s position had improved by 551 A.D., when after the disastrous earthquake of that year it was chosen as the site of the Beirut law school.

The Crusader period, between 1110 and 1291, brought Sidon new prestige as the second of the four baronies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Today the ruins of the Crusader sea castle and the Castle of Saint-Louis, known as the land castle, can still be seen in Sidon.

From the Mamluke and Ottoman periods we have the Great Mosque, built on the foundations of a Crusader church and the Khan “el-Franj” built by Fakhreddine. Today the town, 41 kilometers from Beiru, has grown into a thriving commercial and business center serving the entire region.

TYRE (OR SOUR IN ARABIC)

Although the exact origins of Tyre are unknown, ancient historians say it goes back to the start of the 3rd millennium B.c. Originally a mainland settlement with an island city a short distance offshore, it came of age in the 10th century B.C. when King Hiram expanded the mainland and built two ports and a temple to Melkart, the city’s god.

Its flourishing maritime trade, its Mediterranean and Atlantic colonies and its purple dye and glass industries made Tyre very powerful and wealthy. But the city’s wealth attracted enemies. In the sixth century B.C. the Tyrians successfully defied Nebuchadnezzar for 13 years. Alexander the Great laid siege to it for 7 months, finally overwhelming the island city by constructing a great causeway from the shore to the island.

In their day the Romans built a magnificent city at Tyre. The remains of its Roman streets, arcades and public buildings, including one of the largest hippodromes of the period, are Tyre’s major attractions today.

Occupied by Moslem armies in 636, then in 1124 by the Crusaders, Tyre was an important fortification of the kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1291 the Mamlukes took the city then during the 400-year Ottoman period beginning in 1515, it remained a quiet fishing town.

In 1979 Tyre’s important archaeological remains prompted UNESCO to make the town a world heritage sites. Located 79 km from Beirut, prosperous Tyre is notable for its ma;y high-rise buildings. Nevertheless, the inner city has retained its industrious maritime character and its interesting old-style houses.

THE LEBANESE PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD

LEBANON was given freedom in 1918 by the victory of the Allies in World War I and after a period under French mandate, achieved full independence in 1943. Always a nation of travelers and traders, by the early 1970’s there were some two million Lebanese living in their homeland while an even larger number had settled in every continent of the world. After 1975 the war encouraged more Lebanese to emigrate to Western and Arab countries, where they have contributed their skills, notably in the fields of medicine and commerce.

At home or abroad the Lebanese are known for their kindness and hospitality. These qualities, combined with the country’s relaxed and family-oriented way of life, make visitores feel welcome and at ease.

A COUNTRY FOR ALL SEASONS

LEBANON is one of the few winter sports centers in the Middle East and certainly the most extensive.

The season begins in December and continues until April in a winter landscape unique in the world. The larger resorts have hotels, chalets and other facilities, including good ski lifts. There are six winter resorts: The Cedars (2,300 meters), Faraya/Ouyoun es-Siman (1,890 meters), Laqlouq (1,740 meters), Faqra (1,750 meters), Qana Bakiche (1,990 meters) and Zaarour (1,990 meters).

In Lebanon you can swim in the sea in winter as well as spring and an hour later ski at 1,900 meters.

It almost never rains between June and October so in summer and autumn it is easy to go from sea to mountain, where another world awaits.

Lebanon’s mountain villages and towns are woth a visit any time of year. While some were damaged by war most are thriving towns that offer not only entertainment but a glimpse of the traditional lifestyle not often seen in larger cities. In the Shouf mountains there is DEIR EL-QAMAR with its white houses and red tile roofs built on steep slopes. This was the residence of the governors of Lebanon in 16th-18th cneturies. Many historic buildings here have been restored, such as the Fakhreddine Mosque and the Baz and Al-Kharge palaces. Most recently the central square of this historic town was cleaned and restored.

BESHARRE in the north, the picturesque gateway to the Cedars of Lebanon, is the birthplace of the famous Lebanese poet Gibran Khalil Gibran. Here one may visit the Gibran Museum and the many ancient churches and monasteries in the vicinity.

ZAHLE, the main city of the Beqaa, is popular for its arak, wine and delicious food. It’s not surprising, then, that one of the main attractions here is the oasis of vine covered restaurants situated beside the cool Bardouni river. A picturesque town known for its comfortable climate, Zahle is often referred to as the “Bride of the Beqaa”.

The coastline between Tripoli and Sidon is punctuated by all kinds of leisure facilities from well-equipped swim resorts and family-run fish restaurants to luxurious condominiums.

Between Beirut and Byblos is the town of JOUNIEH which has a lovely bay with craggy mountains rising just behind it. Jounieh enjoys one of the most beautiful natural settings on the coast, although since 1975 high-rise buildings and resort complexes have somewhat dwarfed the old town. Jounieh has long been known for the landmark statue of the Virgin of HARISSA high above the bay, reached by road or by a spectacular, near-vertical cable car ride.