september - october 2004
Beirut has been shaped by a history of different cultural influences and, more recently, by the experience of ethnic conflict. Formerly known as the Paris of the East, Beirut became the capital of Lebanon when it achieved independence from France after the end of the second world war, the French colonial period having followed the collapse of Ottoman rule in the first world war. The city was badly damaged during the infamously intractable civil war that succeeded independence. Ostensibly a conflict between the economicaly dominant Maronite Christians and the poorer Muslin majority, it also involved a sizeable refugee population of Palestenian displaced by Israel and ultimately pulled in many neighbouring countries. Iran backed the Shi'ite Muslin Hezbollah while Syria became involved, initialy after an appeal for aid from the Maronites but they then switched their allegiance to the Sunni Islamic Jihad when Israel invaded South Lebanon to repress Palestinian attacks. There has been a tentative peace since 2000 and a major reconstruction program through out the city. In the eastern district of Solidere, new commercial and residential blocks can be seen standing oddly alongside tradditional Arab and Ottoman buildings that have survived the conflict as well as the bombed out shells of those that have not. The cosmopolitan district of Hamra, in the west of the city, is the hub of tourist activity and has many fine resteraunts and hotels. It also has a vibrant street life that only ever seems to sleep for a few hours just before dawn and its many food stalls provide an excellent and cheap introduction to falafel, schwarma, hummus and tabouleh, the staples of Middle Eastern cuisine. The nearby missionary founded American University of Beirut has extensive gardens that overlook the Mediterranean and wandering around its picturesque campus provides a peacefull retreat from the freneticism of the city outside. The Corniche is a lengthy promenade that streches along the seafront between the two districts. As the evenings wear on it becomes filled with a bewildering array of locals, vendors and families, people listening to music, smoking hookahs, picnicking, fishing. It feels like you are in a departure lounge for the East: as you stand facing the Mediterranean, Africa is on your left, Europe on your right and Asia is just behind you.
Ba'albek, which sits in the Bekaa Valley, has been the site of an oracle since the Phoenecians established a temple there to the god Ba'al in 500BC. During Greek and Roman times, when the town was known as Heliopolus, it was a major place of pilgrimmage, renowned for the opulence of its central temple to Jupiter. Adjoining temples on the site, which are no less extravagant in their decoration, are dedicated to Venus/Astarte and Bacchus/Dionysus. Some of the intricate relief carvings are remarkably well preserved and the mammoth columns are the largest found anywhere in the classical world. The persistence of pagan cult practices in Ba'albek throughout the medievil period led to frequent purges by their Christian neighbours. In 550AD the Emperor Justinian forced the baptism of the locals and partially disassembled the temples, removing 8 of their columns for use in the basilica of Haghia Sophia which he was building in Constantinople (modernday Istanbul). During the civil war Hezbollah made their headquarters here; many of the suicide bombers came from and many of the foreign hostages were taken to Ba'albek. There is still a visible Iranian presence in the town, with posters and murals typicaly featuring a peculiar pairing of the Ayatollah with Kalashnikov rifles, but it is nowadays pretty relaxed and friendly. Parts of it are in fact being beautifully redeveloped and there is a small artisan quarter that would not look out of place in any European town. There are few places to stay in Ba'albek but the Hotel Palmyra, with its shady water gardens, sunbathing cats and marble balconies overlooking the ruins is a fantastic (and fantastical) colonial era relic, gothic and crumbling and simply unmissable. From the main square in the town there are spectacular views out across the valley and up to the snow capped Antilebanon Mountains.
The Syrian capital of Damascus, on the Barada river in the southwestern part of the country, has reasonable claim to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world since archaelogical evidence dates its settlement at 2500BC. It has variously been occupied by the Babylonians, Persians, Seleucids, Romans, Mongols, Mamelukes and Ottomans but the peak of its influence was as the centre for the Umayyad empire, which streched from Spain all the way to India, up until the time of the Abbasids when they removed the caliphate to Baghdad. Much of the new city is congested and grimy and commercialised but stepping into the Old City is like stepping back in time. Its surrounding walls and gates are almost entirely preserved and its maze of streets contain a myriad of bustling souqs. There are markets for spices and sweets, leather and jewellery, metalwork and woodwork, and even for birds and birdcages. In former times the city was famous for the silk fabrics, known as Damask, which were woven there, and also for the manufacture of damascened steel sword blades, renowned for their strength and resilience. The enormous Umayyad Mosque lies at the heart of the Old City, built on the ruins of a Byzantine Cathedral which itself was built on the ruins of a Roman temple. It has towering minarets and lavish mosaics and it contains the mausoleum of Saladin. There are several hammams in the Old City where you can indulge in a traditional massage and steam bath, and a couple of fantastic coffee houses at the rear of the mosque where you can simply relax and watch all shades of life go by. Exploring the labyrinthine alleyways of the quieter Jewish and Christian Quarters gives you a sense of how different parts of the Old City have such a different feel to them or indeed how the same parts can feel very different at different times of the day. But there is everywhere and always around you that same strange charm of ancient history gently decaying.
The Orontes river, which rises near Ba'albeck, forms part of Syria's border with Lebanon and with Turkey. It is damed at various points, creating a fertile river valley which, in ancient times, formed a corridor between Asia Minor and Egypt. The river runs northwards towards Antioch (modern-day Antakya) and flows through the town of Hama, where there is lush greenery and public gardens all along its banks. Hama is a central location in which to base yourself to be able to explore those Syrian sites that are more off the beaten track but it is also a relaxing place to return to after a day of trekking around ruins. The hotels in town can help organise transport, drivers and guides, and will put you together with other travellers interested in visiting the same places. This has the dual benefit of splitting costs and being able to share the pleasure of discovery of new places with like-minded people. Apart from the major sites (like Apamea, Palmyra and Crac de Chevaliers) it is also worthwhile to visit the nearby town of Sarouji where there are Bedu still living in mud-brick beehive houses. The people are very poor but extremely welcoming and are happy to talk with any tourists who pass their way. Mosque domes and minarets dominate the Hama skyline and there are ancient waterwheels still operating on the river. These strange structures, known as the Norias, are up to twenty metres in diameter and they have been found depicted on papyrus and in ancient mosaics (in Apamea). Similar waterwheels can be seen in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Egypt but the Norias of Hama really capture the imagination. Their mournful sighing can be heard throughout the town and up-close, they have a blind power which belies their rustic beauty. Watching them turn with the Orontes, picking up water and spilling it into stone aqueducts, is a scene that feels truly timeless.
Apamea is an extensive Roman ruin sitting on top of the windswept Ghab Plain. Formerly the second city of Christian Syria after Antioch, it was originaly built by the Macedonians, prospered under the Byzantines and was sacked by the Persians. It is reputed to be one of best surviving examples of the Corinthian style of architecture and its central thoroughfare, the Cardo, was once lined with 1200 columns. Apamea was known as a city of luxury and learning and it was famously visited by Cleopatra. As a testament to Apamea's past, the museum on the road below the site contains numerous mosaics of Greek philosophers. There are also well-preserved Christian reliquaries which the faithful would have used by pouring oil in at the top, letting it drain over the relics and then tapping the now holy oil draining from the base. On an adjacent hill is the town of Qala'at al-Mudiq, built in and around an ancient fortress. The obvious poverty of the inhabitants, living as they do so close to such an important but little visited archaeological site, makes for a stark contrast.
The Crusaders left a chain of castles across the Levant but the most impressive is Crac de Chevaliers, located northeast of Tripoli on a cliff overlooking the main route from Antioch to Beirut. It is an enormous Gothic structure, seemingly impervious to the passage of time. There is a moat between the outer and inner walls, the interior contains impressive facades, frescoes and a chapel, and the views from the parapets are spectacular. It was seen by Edward the First, during the Ninth Crusade in 1272AD, and he used it as a model for castles to be built throughout England and Wales. The Crac was the headquarters for the Knights Hospitaller, often besieged but never breached. In the end it was taken by the Sultan Beybars. Jerusalem had already fallen, Christianity was in retreat from the Holy Land and the two hundred knights who remained in the Crac, although they had supplies enough to last them five years, surrendered to the Muslim armies that surrounded them.
Palmyra, the City of Palms, reputedly founded by Solomon, is built on a fertile oasis in the remote centre of the Syrian desert. It prospered greatly from the rich mercantile caravans that passed through it going between the Mediterranean world of the west and Persia, Mesopotamia and India in the east. The site occupies some 50 hectares and, while it has been extensively excavated and restored, it is impressive just to walk amongst the tumbled masonry and broken statuary that is littered all around. The long Colonnade includes impressive Tetrapylons and a quadruple Monumental Arch, it passes by an Amphitheatre and ends at the Temple of Bel, which has intricately decorated friezes. When the Emperor Valerian was defeated and taken hostage by the Persians, Odaenathus, the then ruler of Palmyra, recruited an army of desert Bedu and marched out to his rescue. As a result Palmyra was granted authority, nominaly under Rome, over the entire Syria-Palestine frontier. When Odaenathus' widow, Zenobia, came to power the Roman Empire was being weakened by barbarian attacks so she declared herself the independent queen of the East, and campaigned extensively successfully, capturing Egypt and pushing her garrisons as far into Europe as Ankara. The Emperor Aurelian raised an army against the Palmyrans, besieged and destroyed their city and took Zenobia back to Rome in chains.
Aleppo, the second city of Syria, has long been an important place for trade, being located midway between the Sea and the Euphrates. It has a large network of beautiful souqs covered by vaulted stone ceilings, which rivals anything in Damascus. There are also numerous impressive Khans, buildings that are part warehouse and part residence, which were in use during the time of the great Ottoman caravans. The skyline is dominated by an enormous Citadel which was built atop Byzantine and earlier fortifications by the son of Saladin. The citadel was stormed successfully only once, by the Mongol warlord Tamerlaine, and it is currently being reconstructed. There is similar careful redevelopment being undertaken throughout the old Christian Quarter of Al-Jdeida and its maze of narrow laneways now contain a variety of cafes, bazaars and hotels. The city was a significant Christian centre in the Byzantine Levant. The famous saint, Simeon Stylites, was born nearby. He stayed for thirty-six years (eating, sleeping, praying and preaching) at the top of fifteen-metre pillar and his endurance inspired many imitators so that, for a time, ascetics living atop pillars was a common sight throughout the surrounding region. It is easy for a westerner, listening to the evocative call to prayer, being sung by the Muzzeins from the minarets of Aleppine mosques, to imagine a gulf between the Christian west and the Moslem east. In reality, much of what westerners see as being peculiar to Islam are actually practices and prohibitions that were adopted from Syriac Christianity, which was a precursor for both of today's faiths as we know them.
Petra was the capital city of the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe who controlled the spice, silk and slave trade routes in the Jordanian desert from the time of the third century BC. It is almost completely enclosed by mountain walls, being located in a natural basin that is created by the Great Rift Valley, which begins in East Africa and stretches through the Red Sea into Asia. From the nearby modern-day town of Wadi Musa, the site is entered by way of a high dark gorge that narrows in places down to 10ft. You emerge in front of the impressive Treasury building which, like other structures in Petra, is hewn directly out of the cliff-face. The Monastery building at the far northwestern end of the site is similarly remarkable for the massive scale of its elaborate sculpture. Stretching in between is the Street of Facades leading to the central 7000-seat Theatre, which gives a panoramic view of the multitude of tombs and towers that are carved into the mountainsides. The sandstone is laden with iron, colouring everything in brilliant shades of pink and yellow, and the geology of erosion around the site is breath taking. Climbing any of the many rock stairwells that are cut into the cliffs is a slow and arduous business but the views from the top are invariably inspiring. At the High Place of Sacrifice there is an ancient stone altar that was used for burnt offerings, flanked by ritual water tanks and obelisks. For most of the last millennium, knowledge of the location of Petra became lost to all but local Bedu tribes and it was only rediscovered, by a Swiss explorer disguised as a Bedu, at the start of the nineteenth century.
Wadi Rum is a protected area within the Jordanian desert and travel through it is strictly controlled so as to preserve the arresting beauty of its natural environment. Vast stretches of dunes are interrupted by sandstone and granite ridges that rise up to a 1000ft high, fractured and worn by the winds. There are rock bridges and canyons, mudflats and wells. The Bedu who make their lives here stay in characteristic black goat-hair tents. The men wear traditional gelbiya and keffiyehs and the women do not veil their tattooed faces. They are a naturally hospitable people and are happy to invite travellers to sit and talk with them, drinking coffee flavoured with cardamom and tea flavoured with mint. The desert changes colours as the sun moves and it is at its most dramatic during dawn and dusk. The night sky overhead arches clearly from horizon to horizon and the stars, which seem bewildering at first, form clear patterns that can be seen to chase each other as the earth turns beneath them towards the morning. Wadi Rum was the headquarters for Prince Faisal and TE Lawrence during the First World War, when they led the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Despite their frequent successes at blowing it up, the old Hejaz railway line, originally built to carry haj pilgrims between Damascus and Medina, still runs through this part of the desert.
The town of Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport. It is located at the southernmost end of the Wadi Arabah and faces onto the Red Sea. The gulf of Aqaba is an extension of the Great Rift Valley and its waters are consequently famed for diving and snorkelling. The surrounding jagged hills are made of geologically ancient igneous rocks that were excavated for their amethyst, turquoise and garnet deposits by the Egyptians. Nearby malachite mines, dating from the third millennium BC, were an important resource during biblical times and were the source of copper traded under King Solomon. The weather in the gulf is always pleasantly balmy, the markets bustle with tourists visiting from the nearby resorts and the streets are lined by palms and manicured gardens. It is an idyllic town to relax in and has the feel of an oasis. Standing down at the harbour, you can see around the bay to Eilat in Israel, Taba in Egypt and Haql in Saudi Arabia, and you feel that you are truly in the middle of Middle East.