Except for the Autostrade, which is Lebanon's main highway, gently wending its way along the Mediterranian, and totally disappearing once you enter any city, the straightaways are measured in meters. Basically, the road network is a go-kart track that they are working on paving, twisting up and down the mountains, with a kajillion intersections that twist back on themselves. That said, we asked a lot of questions regarding directions to...
Bcharre, which is on top of a hill overlooking a deep gorge with the beautiful pastoral Qadisha Valley nestled at the bottom; unfortunately there seems to be little planning as to where large ugly concrete structures will be built, with electric wires strung willy nilly.
Bcharre is best known as the birthplace of Khalil Gibran, world known author (The Prophet), artist and sculptor. When Gibran died in Boston, he requested to be buried in Bcharre. There is a Gibran museum with his tomb there.
The town is 1500 ft up in the Mount Lebanon Range, surrounded by the Qadisha Valley and The Cedars. Some of the cedar trees here are 1000 years old. Once much of this mountainous area was covered by these gigantic trees -- alas much as been deforested, the topsoil has eroded and and the slopes are bare and rocky, as seen in the top image of the shepherd, following his flock on his donkey.
"The Cedars of Lebanon". A phrase known around the world, and regarded as one of those wonderous places, immense and older than recorded history. At one time the radius of this immense forest would have stretched nearly 100 kilometers. Imagine -- thousands of years ago these trees were cut down, transported to the Mediterrean and shipped to Egypt to be used for boat building in Ancient Egypt. And not only Egypt profited from this wealth of wood. The mountains were essentially raped and left to die of exposure, just like the clear-cutting we have seen in western Canada. Today, The Cedars National Park is at best a few kilometers of heavily protected area, and the people are attempting to reforest where the soil conditions allow.
We settled in at the Bcharre Palace Hotel, which was clean and spartan and $40/night. There we met the manager and his son Khalid. They had been in Lebanon for 11 months -- fleeing from Damascus to prevent 16 year old Khalid from getting involved as a protester in the Syrian conflict. Khalid offered to be our guide for the next day. We headed down into the valley and then up on to the other side of the gorge.
For close to 2000 years Christians have fled to this remote to build monasteries; we had the opportunity to view one of these tucked into the mountain face.
We headed east toward the Syrian border. No, we didn't intend to get anywhere near that border, but we were aiming for Baalbeck, site of one of the worlds best Roman ruins. Into the serious mountains we go, onto the aforementioned go-kart ride. The paved road we were told to take disappeared into unpaved forks. Pick one and go, and yes, that is snow, and it is October. We passed a few homes and found ourselves on a road climbing a mountain. The sun said we were pointed in the right general direction to Baalbeck.
Once over the mounstains we were in a valley that is one of the older agricultural areas in the world -- apple and fig orchards and vineyards which have yielded wine for thousands of years.
This section is part of the roof, or portico, of this structure. As a major technophobe, I am confounded at how people got these humongous rocks up ther to make a roof, and then decorate them so intricately they would last 2000 years. Beyond the ruins site, we saw no reason to remain there, small town, tourist trap, single attraction.
Off to Byblos (Jbail). We had a vague map showing a route through the mountains, past the Jeita Grotto, and to the sea, where we would simply turn right a few kilometers or so and 'bingo'. NOPE!!! First, after passing the unmarked turn-off, and realizing we were heading way out, like maybe Israel, we turned around and started asking directions. Most of the people insisted we return to Baalbeck, go to Bcharre, and pick up the Autostrade at Tripoli. No, No and NO! BEEN THERE!!! We decided to turn left at the first paved road and hope for the best. OK, we were aiming west into the mountains, that was a good sign. We stopped now and then to ask, and were told go 'direct' until... At one point we pulled up to an older(maybe 70's) man and his 20 something (granddaughter, daughter, wife?). The next thing we knew, they piled into our back seat and pointed the way. They spoke not a word of English, and we wondered if they had understood our request. We drove for nearly an hour, when I was signalled to pull over. The girl pointed forward, made an arc to the left, a T with her hands and indicated left. Incredible! We were on the main highway.
Just past this natural rock bridge, we passed two major ski resorts, where the employees were busying themselves getting the lifts, skidoos and sno-cats tuned for the season they said would be starting in about 2 weeks. There was not a speck of snow there, and sheep were grazing on the slopes, but "the higher level snow we saw was a good sign". Getting our Nissan Micra out before the snow came was a very good idea. We stopped in a town named after (or before) one of the ski resorts and had lunch, and then head back on down to the Mediterranian and the Byblos Comfort Inn, nice, comfortable, clean and $8 with breakfast.
Wikipedia notes that "Byblos has the reputation of being the oldest city in the world, founded by Cronus. During the 3rd millennium BC, the first signs of a town can be observed, with the remains of well-built houses of uniform size. This was the period when the Phoenician civilization began to develop" It has been inhabited since then so there are layers and layers of ruins, still not fully excavated. As a bonus, they have a market, with a laid back feeling where we found make Muslim nesting dolls, semi-Saudi style.
While roaming more Roman/Greek/Ottoman ruins there, I met a Maronite priest who asked if I knew what "those twin jet trails" were. Turns out they are Israeli F16 Phantom spy planes that pass over much of Lebanon several times daily, looking for Hamas, or hummous maybe (Lebanon is known for its hummous).
The difference we most noted about the 'ruins' here was that there was trees and other vegetation growing, unlike all those barren rocks we had become accustomed to elsewhere. Though this one was far more weather worn than Baalbeck, it had its own beauty, and a very good museum.
Leaving Byblos, we headed to the airport in Beirut. Typical Autostrade! As soon as we entered the city, it pulled its vanishing act and we we in the middle of shopping chaos. Frustrated, we stopped and asked directions to the airport, and were told to go this way until...and then turn at some roundabout. Lost and confused we proceeded. Suddenly a sign appeared, like from heaven!
Well! There is no way this guy is going to pass up a holy grail such as this! Costco Beirut!!! 'The American Department Store', in the basement of a commercial or apartment building, and just larger than the pharmacy section of any we have ever seen! They have the brands, and many of the products, but not very many. Beside Kirkland 100% Colombian coffee, and a few other items, what we got was accurate directions to the airport. Adieu Lebanon.
