This post covers my extensive tour of Beirut City and my trip into some surrounding sites of Beirut before leaving Lebanon to fly to Iraq for a 13 day organised tour with the same company that I used for Syria.
Beirut (Pop 2,578,766, Elev 0 to 1200m, First Settled 5000 years ago) is big and modern. It is the largest city in Lebanon and the Capital. The CBD is built on a peninsula that just out into the Mediterranean and this is very modern but sadly empty due to COVID and the huge Port Explosion of 2020, both of which debilitated many businesses. This CBD is full of skyscrapers and high-rise apartments and modern malls and looks like it may be another city in the USA or Europe. I stayed in the HAMRA area, which is very popular with educated and professional locals and tourists. The centre of the neighbourhood, Hamra Street, is one of Beirut's major commercial districts, and is known for its fashion stores, as well as many restaurants, cafes, bars and hotels. The area is known for having a lively nightlife. I stayed here before Syria and now for another 5 nights before leaving Lebanon for Iraq.
I decided to hire a private car and driver/guide to take me around the city since the important sites are too spread out to walk in 32C humid heat and I wanted to fully recover physically from Syria in readiness to run and wine my way through Iraq !!! My driver/guide Albert was terrific and together we saw the following sites: Old Lighthouse, Al Majadiya (Ottoman Mosque), Beirut Port (Blast Site), Gemeyze area, Masra area, St Michael Steps, Martyrs Square, Mohammed Al Amin (Blue Mosque), St George Maronite Cathedral, Government Palace, Roman Baths, Souk El Tawileh, Souk Ayass, Khan Antoun Plaza, Downtown area, Armenian Catholic Church, Pigeon Rock & White Sand Beach. The highlight for me was Pigeon Rock which is a stone arch in the Mediterranean within jumping distance of the CBD boardwalk – a terrific place to jog and walk. It looks like a miniature version of one of the arches on the great ocean road. The one off Milos is very similar.
I was also fascinated by my guide’s insight into what he thinks caused the explosion of 4 August 2020 – see this after the photos below. Another surprise for me was seeing Churches built right next to Mosques – even the two biggest in the middle of the city. According to my guide this goes back in history to the ancient days when Christians and Muslims co-existed in the absence of money-hungry politicians and extremist religious faction leaders. Relations between the two are good now and there is even representation of both faiths in Parliament with the only Christian President in the entire Arab World. Everyone wants to live in Beirut ? So much so that there are units everywhere and a 100 sqm two bedder in the CBD with underground parking will set you back USD2million and that’s AFTER the explosion !!! Why is Beirut so popular ? Mainly because of the Lebanese abroad – many left when the 1975 Civil War started and made it big overseas, especially in USA and are coming back to reconnect with a city that literally never sleeps – the coast is lined with night clubs that literally operate all night closing at sunrise !!!
I also organised a second private car with Anwar who took me to the following places the next day: Jeita Grotto, St Paul Greek Melkite Cathedral, Jounie Bay, Harissa, Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic Cathedral, Our Lady of Lebanon Statue, Harissa-Journie Teleferique, Annaya, The Maronite Monastery of Saint Maron (Tomb & Skete of St Charbel).
The Jeita Grotto was another classic bitter-sweet experience. SWEET because it is easily the best stalagtite- stalagmite cave I have ever seen and I have seen swillions of them ! The cave interior is HUGE with high vaulted ceilings and a gorge-like floor – you see it by walking a fenced pathway along what feels like an internal cliff. There are literally thousands of stalagtites and stalagmites of every shape, size and colour. There are many connected and the oldest formation is a stalagmite whose bottom is 12,000 years old – amazing. BITTER because there is a guard at the entrance that searches you and takes all your cameras and mobile phone and locks them up in a locker – you cannot take any film or photos - so bloody barbarian and backward. According to my guide it is an old law made by the Ministry of Tourism which would take an act of Parliament to change and no one is interested !!! I explained that Lebanon is missing a fantastic opportunity to have thousands of visitors promote the cave through their photos and videos on their social media. The Jeita Grotto has two huge mutli-cave cavities – an upper and a lower. The lower is viewed by boat and the upper on foot by walkway – the two are not connected with separate entrances on the outside. Depsite the absence of you won photos, The Jeita Grotto is jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
The Church and statue of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa town was a very unusual design with a wave like roof that resembles the Sydney Opera House. It has a remarkable view of the entire Beirut coastline. Only St Paul’s Melkite (Greek Cathedral) also in Harissa has a better view and the inside of this church is completely covered in Byzantine Icons all made of mosaics of tiny coloured stones – simply elevating. This marvellous Church was opened in 1998 after 51 years of construction including the mosaics which took more than half this time.
The highlight was easily venerating the relics of St Charbel a Maronite Catholic Monk who is know all over the world by the Lebanese. Charbel Makhlouf, also known as Saint Charbel Makhlouf or Sharbel Maklouf, was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon who lived from 1828 to 1898. During his life, he obtained a wide reputation for holiness, and for his ability to unite Christians and Muslims. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church from 1977 because it was reported by the Vatican to have healed over 1 million people worldwide after his death. Amazing. He is known among Lebanese Christians as the "Miracle Monk of Lebanon" because of the favours received through his intercession, especially after prayers are said at his tomb in the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, Lebanon. Visiting his tomb was very special for me and people poured in and out the whole time I was there.
I spent the rest of my time in Lebanon finalising this post and preparing for my 13 day expedition through most of Iraq. This was also a great time to sleep in, wash clothes, repair gear, pay bills and enjoy more local Lebanese food.
Enjoy Beirut and its surrounds because the next post will come to you from Baghdad in Iraq !!! Can you believe it !!!
THE CELL OF ST CHARBEL:
ABOUT THE BEIRUT EXPLOSION:
Here is a summary of my guides view of what happened on 4 August 2020, which took everyone by surprise and claimed 218 lives and injured over 2000 people. The blast was so powerful that it physically shook the whole country of Lebanon. It was felt in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Israel, as well as parts of Europe, and was heard in Cyprus, more than 240 km (150 mi) away. It was detected by the United States Geological Survey as a seismic event of magnitude 3.3 and is considered one of the most powerful accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions in history.
The official world press explanation is as follows: On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by the Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse. As of 2022, an investigation by the Lebanese government is ongoing.
The view from my guide is as follows: the ammonium nitrate was originally destined for another country but was diverted to Beirut since that country would not accept it and because the ship carrying it MV Rhosus was in poor shape. That other country is speculated to be Syria. It is also speculated that the purpose of the ammonium nitrate going to Syria was to be used by ISIS in their campaign against the Syrian Government. When the ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut it was taken off the ship and stored next to several massive double reinforced concrete grain silos. The ammonium nitrate itself was in a metal warehouse next to these. Those silos actually reduced the force of the blast and half are STILL STANDING (as you saw in the photos) and are credited with the relatively low death toll. Immediately after the blast certain government officials cleared up the demolished area. The USA/UN intervened and sent experts to investigate – their official conclusion was that the explosion was not created by the original load of 2750 tonnes but by a much lesser amount around 500 tonnes. So where did the rest go ? It is speculated that government officials and port authorities were being paid by ISIS to smuggle ammonium nitrate out of the Port of Beirut by smaller vessels carrying other materials bound for the Syrian Port of Tartus which I visited and slept at. It is also speculated that non-corrupt port authorities suspected foul play given the boats acceptance in the first place and convinced a judge to issue a court order to investigate the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored. The inspection date was set just a few days AFTER the explosion. My guide reckons that ISIS ordered the destruction of the warehouse so that the remaining quantity of ammonium nitrate could not be measured. Now you have heard a different perspective. Despite the reason the sad thing is that civilians always pay the price. Will this ever change ?
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