One weekend, we decided to take a road trip through the Bekaa valley (just on the other side of the first mountains), halfway between Beirut and Syria. We drove into forests and through clouds, creeping our way into the "fertile crescent" of Lebanon - the vineyard and farm-rich valley. There, we stayed in an old fashioned, very unique hostel (we slept on thin mats on the floor like travelers hundreds of years ago would have), went to a wine tasting, and climbed monuments.
I thought our first stop to be overwhelmingly impressive - imagine! climbing around unsupervised on Roman ruins!! Yasmina said just to wait... Balbaak would blow me away.
In Tyr, the old city crumbles and the new city creeps in.
The next set was in Anjaar, a walled city reused by nomads during the war; The peoples had converted Roman shops along the main road into a small village, with a day care and living shelters. They simply infilled the structure- patching concrete or building anew on top. It was impossible at times to tell what ended where- new or old - because there was the same layer of grunge coating it all. I guess it didn't matter, but I could only imaging the magnificence of waking each morning to the sun rising over arches two thousand years old.
Anjaar
The inner palace walls remain
And then Balbaak, like nothing I'd ever seen before. An immense playground of ruins and sculpture, carvings and temples. We caught a Chopin performance by a full orchestra seated at the base of the Temple to Bacchus.
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