Archive | March 8, 2017

Lebanon, part 1…

I have my laptop back!  While Apple in Athens had it up on blocks, I took the opportunity to get off-island and travel.  I went to Lebanon to visit some friends in Beirut, see the country, eat the food…fascinating, sad, vibrant, beautiful, ancient.  It was an easy, inexpensive, 2-hour flight on MEA.  Up and down.  Beirut reminded me somewhat of Athens, but only more so.  I’ll have better details later, but I just wanted to set the thread spinning…Here are some pictures.  Many more to come!

Looking north from the top of the crusaders castle in Saida.   Much of the coast of Lebanon looks like this.

 

The Mohammad Al Amin Mosque, just west of the old Green Line, Beirut.  It is a 21st century addition to the cityscape.

An interior of the Druze castle in Beit el dine.  This is an amazing castle, in perfect condition and all but empty of visitors.  I pretty much had the place to myself.  I’ll post more from here.

Beit el dine interior…

The Cedars of Lebanon, Jabal Barouk, Chouf.  The cones of the Cedars look more like roses…It was silent but for birdsong when I was there.

The Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek, Bekaa Valley.  The whole Roman site is slowly being rebuilt and cleaned up.  This is actually a small temple.  The Temple of Jupiter is 3 times larger.

A view of Byblos…a layer cake of civilizations…Phoenician, two or three Greek, then a couple of Roman, Byzantine, Middle Ages, Ottoman, French Mandate, Arab…

Another view of the mosque…that other building is the old cinema. During the civil war in the 1980s, Palestinian guerrillas would hang out there and watch action flicks in between skirmishes–or so I have read.  There are movements trying to keep it as is, in memorium, but it is falling apart.

–JDCM