Sightseeing tours of Lebanon
Depending on how much time you are spending in Lebanon and how you want to juggle your skiing with your sightseeing, it is perfectly possible to see many of the places listed below. On all these excursions you are accompanied by a guide.
Please click on 'Itinerary' on the tool bar above to see how we suggest you work in all this sightseeing. Obviously if time is short and you only wish to see specific things or stay longer in the ski resorts, then this can easily be arranged.
National
Museum Beirut
If you can make the time, visit the museum. Upon arrival there is a very comprehensive video which lasts15mins and tells you amongst other things how, during the war the precious artifacts were encased in cement to protect them. They have since been treated, restored and are beautifully displayed. One of the more interesting exhibits is the sarcophagus of Ahirim, the Phoenician King of Byblos. The inscription on it is dated back to the 12th Century BC and is the oldest Phoenician inscription yet discovered. (This assumes more importance if you get to see the ancient ruins in Byblos). On the first floor are the Egyptian, Phoenician and Roman royal jewelry, along with pottery. The museum basically covers six thousand years of civilisation and heritage so is well worth a visit.
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Rebuilding
work in Beirut by Solidere
It
does not take long to drive around the redevelopment work and wander
around some of the newly built streets with their beautiful ochre brick
apartments. Having flattened everything and pushed the rubble out into
the sea, the rebuilding is progressing at an incredible rate.
It is interesting and a privilege to see a city that has undergone so
much, literally rebuilding itself from the rubble. Also bear in mind
that you are looking upon what is fast becoming the most expensive bit
of real estate in the Middle East. What is not apparent is the work
that has gone into the underwater breakwaters, which reduce the roughest
Mediterranean storms to little waves by the time they reach the new
promenade. Driving through Beirut it is fascinating to see how
the rebuilding shows up the contrasts between the war-shattered buildings
and the new modern architecture.
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Tyre
and Sidon
You drive South out of Beirut for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, allowing for you to arrive in Tyre in time for lunch, by the harbor fortress.
Tyre is probably best known in our minds for the stand against Alexander the Great (322BC) when the island of Tyre defended itself for 7 months until Alexander built a causeway across to it. Over the years this has become a full-fledged peninsula. Out at the tip of the peninsula are the ruins of the Crusaders' Cathedral, and the old Phoenician city. You can see the remains of the Phoenician city walls, the Roman colonnades and thermal baths.
You pass through the City of the Dead, with 1,000 sarcophagi and the Triumphal Archway into the most breathtaking sight in Tyre. The ruins of the huge Roman Hippodrome. It must be the largest still standing today. You can sit up on the stands looking down on this vast Roman chariot-racing arena, capable of holding 30,000 spectators and imagine the roar of the crowds, cheering on the charioteers!
Sidon is visited on the way back up to Beirut in the afternoon. It was best known in ancient times for the production of purple dye from the mollusks found on the coast and was one of the Phoenicians most important trading ports. Perhaps the most interesting thing to see in Sidon is the Ocean Fortress of Qalaat al-Bahr. This is dramatic in its location and was built by the Crusaders (then called Chateau de la Mer), to protect the Northern harbor in 1228. Off equal interest to some is a very good souk! From Sidon you return to Beirut.
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Ancient
city of Byblos
Byblos, (or Jbail) is lovely. Having most probably read up a bit from the guide books, you arrive and drive down to the port with its colorful fishing boats and really feel this is exactly what you wanted to see! Byblos is believed to be the world's oldest occupied city and excavations have uncovered houses and graves from the 5th millennium BC.
The best view of the ancient Phoenician and Roman ruins is from the Crusader castle. The castle itself is interesting and you can see the granite pillars that the Romans brought from Italy, which have been used by the Franks to reinforce the castle from earthquakes. Interestingly as the excavations have continued over the last 50 years the various layers have been revealed by moving the top buildings to another area of the ruins. This means you can see the Roman Odeon, not in its original place, but further over by the sea. Where it originally stood three Phoenician Temples have been uncovered.
Lunch is had over looking the sea, near the port. Depending on the itinerary you wish to follow, a good idea is to go and have coffee after lunch, (or dinner, if staying in Byblos overnight), at the The Fishing Club. This is a very pricey restaurant but fun to treat yourself to, as it has a very good atmosphere. The Fishing Club used to be the most fashionable restaurant in the Middle East and the walls are covered in photographs of famous celebrities. The shopping is also good in Byblos, and if you are interested in marine fossils then there is a shop licensed to sell them to provide funds for further excavations. Even if not, it is interesting to see how they open the fossil without damage and to hear how this huge fossil bed, now a quarry well above sea level, came into being.
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Stellas
of Dog River
Down by the coast at the mouth of the Dog river are where the conquering
armies going back to Rameses II of Egypt (1292-1225BC) have put their
mark. This tradition has continued until as recently as 1942 when the
French and Allied armies arrived in Lebanon. As you walk up the river
there are 19 inscriptions from different invading forces. It is an interesting
place to visit if you are up on your military history, however it is
near the motorway which is quite noisy. Despite the distraction
of the traffic it is strange to think how many legions of soldiers have
tramped the very area you are walking across!
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Jeita
Grotto
This can be combined with the visit to Dog River and is utterly beautiful. You get to the cave mouth by telecabine, and from there enter the Grotto. There is no description sufficient to prepare you for what you will see. It is like walking into a huge Cathedral, which has stalactites descending from the ceiling and huge columns of stalagmites pushing upwards. It is all very sensitively lit but unfortunately no photography is allowed. There is also a presentation every 15 minutes, held in a small cinema outside the caves, explaining their history. If a skier, when you visit the water is high in winter, so the lower chamber will be closed, however the upper chamber is so vast, you won't feel you are missing anything!
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Qalaat
Fakra and the natural stone bridge at Kferdiban (near Faraya Resort)
This can be visited on foot if you are feeling energetic while staying in the ski resort. If there is too much snow it will not be safe to walk to the stone bridge, but there is a nice walk along the road from which you can see it. It is quite remarkable when looked at closely as it really does look man made. The real treat though is the impressive Roman Temple Ruins of Qalaat Fakra. Providing the snow is not too deep, you can walk amongst them.
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Tripoli
Tripoli is everything you would wish of an oriental city. The old city dates from the Mameluke era (14th-15th Century) and gives off a buzz of excitement. The souk has various areas, the gold souk, the fruit and vegetable souk and other commercial buildings called Khans or Caravanserais. The Tailors Khan is fascinating and timeless. Since the 14th century traders have been coming, renting a shop until they have sold off all their silks and cloth, then closing up and heading off to Turkey, Iran, maybe even as far as Afghanistan. Today the traders own their shops in the Khan, but you don't have to rely on your imagination here to feel how it must have once been. The soap Caravanserai is also worth going to see as they carve the soaps into various flower shapes and the ingredients are very organic! (Honey, oatmeal and olive oil for the face is a good one!)
Until recently the Al Abed baths were open, but for some undisclosed reason they have been shut down, so the nearest we can get you to a bath house is the Hammam en-Nouri. This dates back to 1333 and is sadly in disrepair, but the cupolas in the roof are studded with glass which gives off a beautiful light in the rooms below. In the main reception room as you enter, there is a marble pool with a weird optical illusion. You can maybe work it out yourselves, but if not the guide will explain how it works!
There is a lot to pack in on this day as the Taynal mosque is also a must. It still has a beautiful partially preserved Cedar wood balcony from the previous Church foundations it was built on, and has a lovely feel to it. The Crusader Castle (The Citadel of Raymond de Saint Giles) is also interesting, but frustratingly short on recorded history that can bring it alive. This is because during the Mamluke invasions all of the books and records were destroyed.
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Maronite
Chapels in the Kadisha Gorge
You can either walk or take a taxi down into the Kadisha Gorge to see some of the chapels and hermitages.
What we highly recommend is a day trek to get to places not in the guide book, along the side of the gorge exploring the chapels in the rock face. The trek we suggest takes five hours but that allows for a lot of dawdling and exploring. It is only a 30 minute climb at the end of the trek, so you can enjoy the flat or down hill for most of the day! You will meet no one else on this trek other than your guide, and the quiet around you gives time to reflect on how the Maronite monks survived in such desperate conditions while persued by the Mamlukes.
At the top end of the gorge the caves are spartan, yet fascinating to climb inside. There are the remains of a tiny chapel called Deir as Salib which still has frescos drawn in 1350. Further down in the gorge is Deir Qannoubin built in 1442. It remained the Patriarcial seat from the 15th until the 19th C. It has a beautiful chapel with a huge fresco. There is also the chapel cave of St Marina, erected around 1600. Seventeen of the Patriarchs are buried here giving it great significance to the Maronite community. The Chapel of Saydet Hawka is wonderful. It is the last chapel on the trek, and definitely a case of the best until last.
The walk itself, aside from the Chapels, is quite stunning and takes you through all terrains, from pine woods, to secondary habitat, and out onto a vast dramatic rock and boulder strewn landscape.
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Kadisha
Grotto and Kalil Gibran museum
The Kadisha Grotto is nothing like as spectacular as the Jeita Grotto, but worth a visit for skiers who opted for an extra days skiing and missed out on the Jeita Grotto. The Kadisha Grotto can be visited at the end of a days skiing, by walking down the old road on the way back to your hotel at Bchaare.
The Kalil Gibran museum is well worth a visit for fans of the prophet. It is built into the rock face in a charming location, just a 15 minute walk from the hotel you are staying in. It is also his tomb and houses hundreds of his paintings and his personal possessions.
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Der
Mar Antonio Qozhaya
This
is the largest hermitage in the Kadisha valley and was founded in the
12th century. The museum is good, with a variation of exhibits from
the robes worn by the Patriarchs, portraits of them and various tools
used by the monks for working the soil. There is also an ancient printing
press (manufactured in UK!) used to print the psalms in Syriac the Maronites
language still used in their services. The other thing to see aside
from the chapel (which is very beautiful) is the Grotto of St Antony.
Frankly we all found this grotto unsettling and it does not have a good
feel to it! It was used to constrain the possessed or mad and still
has the chains inside it.
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Our
Lady of Lebanon
This
is on the outskirts of Beirut high above Jounieh bay at Harrisa. Also
known as the Virgin of Lebanon she is an impressive white statue, beneath
which is an Orthodox chapel. The views from the top of the statue are
fabulous right across the whole of Beirut. Apparently the statue was
made in France and brought to Lebanon in the late 19th Century.
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Beit
ed dine
About
an hours drive from Beirut is a village with the most extraordinary
palace. The building of it commenced in 1788. Skilled artisans were
allowed by Emir Bashir of Lebanon, the leading member of the Shihab
family, to be creative, and the end result is impressive. A lot of the
furnishings from the palace were lost during the war from 1975 but fortunately
in 1983 the Druze leader Walid Joumblatt ordered the restoration of
the palace and opened museums within it. It is a beautiful place to
wander around. Looking out from the palace the gardens are well tended
and the rooms lavishly decorated with marble mosaics and lovely wooden
shutters. Some of the windows have stained glass in them all adding
to the general feel of opulance, creating the atmosphere that gives
an insight into the lifestyle the Emir enjoyed in it once it was completed
in 1818. You can also see the vast kitchens which would have catered
for 500 people a day and the bath houses are interesting. After spending
time in the palace it is worth a visit to the Mir Amin Palace Hotel!
This was built for one of the Emirs sons and is now a luxury hotel above
the main part of the village.
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Wine
Caves of Ksara and the Village of Zahle
This is a fun thing to go and do and it would be a shame to miss out on wine tasting in Lebanon! Ksara is known for its Rose, or its' red wine Reserve du Couvent. Guided tours of the cellars are arranged. Lunch could be had afterwards in Zahle, famous for its food and its very pleasant riverside restaurants. Afterwards a wander around to walk of lunch doesn't go amiss. Zahle is a good looking town with its large, red roofed houses.
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Baalbeck
The sheer size of the ruins at Baalbeck can not fail to impress. You feel dwarfed by them! The money that must have come out of the coffers in Rome to produce these temples of worship is impossible to calculate. Most impressive though is the temples of Bacchus as not much of the temple of Jupiter remains except six huge columns which you notice from a long way off. The Palmyra Hotel which you can stay in in Baalbeck, over looks the ruins. Part of the charm of visiting Baalbeck is to stay in this delightful hotel. It is full of antiques and dates back 120 years to the days of Victorian tourism! The hotel does lack a good heating system and still has paraffin stoves in some of the rooms. This doesn't seem to matter though as the staff are very attentive and friendly and the service is good. Buying a drink at the bar is a hoot! Every bottle on display is empty, but your order is still served, it is just that the barman goes off down to the cellar to get it! The Palmyra is the only place that serves alcohol in Baalbeck. It is simply a hotel that we want you to see!
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Krak
des Chevaliers
To
continue North to Syria is quite an experience. You may get delayed
a little at the check point but you will also appreciate what it has
been like in Lebanon to have all the tourist destinations to yourselves!
There will be quite a few large coaches, but even not having the place
to yourselves, cannot possibly detract from this magnificent crusader
castle. For those who are fascinated by Crusader Castles this
has to be the icing on the cake. When the Knights of St John built the
castle to its present size it could accommodate a garrison of 4,000
men. When you imagine feeding that number it helps you realize what
a huge feat that was for the Knights of St John to achieve. On the subject
of food, we have lunch at the castle restaurant, then continue round
the northern Border of Lebanon, cutting down past Tripoli and back to
Beirut. This is a long day, but you are back in time for a night of
feasting in Beirut and it is worth it to get a glimpse of the the far
North of Lebanon.
So how
are we going to fit this all in? Click here to see itinerary
