The Bekkar Valley

This morning we left the relative warmth of the city and headed back into the mountains and the Beqaa Valley - in fact the 'valley' is a plateau bounded on the East and West by snow covered mountains. The area has a colourful history in cannabis cultivation and was one of the major battlegrounds during Lebanon's 1982 conflict with Israel when it destroyed Syrian missile batteries in the area. However, what we saw was mainly grape vines - many badly broken by the recent snows.

The road out of Beirut ground up a steep twisting road through the suburbs and, eventually, to the barren snow covered top with the inevitable military check point. Amazingly the Ottomans had constructed a railway up and over this high pass - apart from the occasional flat former track line, the only evidence of its previous existence was the occasional snow shelter that had protected the line. Although the road was well cleared, there was plentiful evidence on its margins of the depth of snow that had recently blocked the high pass and blanketed the country side.

Lebanon has two sets of mountains that start as a single range in the North close to the Syrian border, split into two that head South before rejoining close to the Israeli border. The Western range is only a few miles in land from the coast. This means that there is really only space for a single coast road and this seems to be subject to a continuous rush hour.

Driving in Lebanon seems to be more an art than a science or skill. The only rules seems to be that you only have to take account of other drivers in front of your car - once you can get your bumper in front, there are no rules. One result of this style of driving are the number of car part establishments that sell just the front two feet of vehicles.

On the way we were told some facts about life in Lebanon - I'm afraid that many of these interesting morsels are forgotten, but a couple that stuck are :

• There is one medical doctor for every eight citizens
• Children opt to learn either French or English at an early age and then all subjects are taught in this language. During their time at secondary school they then have to learn the other language !
• The various religions share each other's holidays - this leads to everybody having lots of holidays : 5/6 just in the Autumn alone.
• There are statues of the Virgin Mary everywhere because both Christians and Muslims revere her.

Our first destination today is billed as one of the Lebanon’s great highlights - Baalbeck. This is a gigantic complex of Roman temples - possibly the largest ever built. The city was known to the Greeks as Heliopolis – the city of the sun – as the Phoenicians worshipped the sun god Baal here. The Romans constructed a huge temple to Bacchus (detailed sculpture work reveals twining vines, poppies and wheat – symbols of the cult of Bacchus) and also the Temple of Jupiter, reached by a monumental staircase. Much of the building comprises of local limestone - we were told that dressed blocks were placed on top of each other with the top surface of the bottom block being wetted - after a while the two layers would fuse together. However, granite used for the columns and this was brought from Aswan in Egypt - it was towed on rafts made from Cedar logs shipped out from the Lebanon.

Today the usually spectacular site had an extra dimension given by several inches of snow. Whilst spectacular, as the snow melted, the slush soon made my light weight 'warm weather' boots sodden and my feet turn into blocks of unfeeling ice. At the end of our guided tour of the site, we were given 30 minutes of 'free' time to wander the site and visit its museum. I took the opportunity to go into the adjoining town and managed to find a pair of Wellington boots.

Anjar

As luck would have it, our next stop must have been at a slightly lower altitude and there was now no snow - just a cloying mud. The site was Anjar which was inhabited during the C7th and C8th AD, but was then abandoned soon after the Ummayad caliphs were defeated by the Abbasids. Thus the site is said to be a unique example of this period. What was visible to day was the Roman fortified town was based on their symmetrical rectangular layout incorporating graceful palaces, baths and souks. Located on the East-West trade route, around 600 shops have already been excavated.

Byblos Harbour

Back across the valley and up & over the mountains we returned to the mayhem that was the coastal road which was our path to our overnight stay at Bylbos. After settling into the hotel room, we wandered into the town and ended eating at a restaurant on the harbour side. It was a typical Med harbour with lots of small fishing boats tied up bobbing just off the wall.