Lebanon, Day Two

Anjar ruins

Today was a full-blown touring day.  Early this morning we headed over Mount Lebanon and into the Bekkah Valley where we spent most of the day.  The valley between the Mount Lebanon range of mountains and the Anti-Lebanon range is the bread basket of the country and extremely fertile.  Lebanon may not have oil, but it does have water (and ideas!,  the Lebanese are quick to tell you) and they can feed themselves.

  We visited the Anjar ruins first (the lesser ruins if you will.  Anjar is a very pretty town that was settled by Armenians after they were persecuted and thrown out by the Turks.  

The ruins are cool in and of themselves, they are dwarfed by the fame of the Baalbek ruins.

Baalbek

Baalbek was originally a sacred place for the phoenecians dedicated to the god Baal.  It was later a worship site for Christians and later still a fortress.  Baalbek sits currently square in the ultra-conservative Hezbollah region.  The Hezbollah flags (a kalashnikov on a yellow background...charming :) are everywhere as are posters with pictures of their political leader Hassan Nasrallah.  Signs that Iran's money is finding it's way into this part of the Bekkah valley are evident in the new mosques (in particular a beautiful blue mosque just next to the ruins).  The area is heavily pro Iran as they are mostly Shia' .

After a long visit of Baalbek we headed to the beautiful town of Zahle and it's riverfront, tree-shaded restaurants.  Here one of the incongruities of the Middle East hit us when a Saudi man walked in with four young women completely covered in black (unlike the UAE, they did stand out from the crowd).  They sat at the next table and ordered mezze and then proceeded to order nargileh (shisha, waterpipe).  It just seems odd to see these young women smoking shisha in full abaya with their dad/husband/brother (who really knows??)  

On the way back to Beirut we stopped in a winery (Ksar) and then made our way back through the military checkpoints and over the mountains to Beirut (about 45 minutes away).  They say that in winter you can ski on Mount Lebanon in the morning and waterski in the Med in the afternoon.  I'm sure it's true.  One thing that takes away from the natural beauty is the garbage strewn everywhere in this country.  People just throw stuff out of their cars--very unpleasant.

More news tomorrow....