Beirut – April – Andrew's Blog

The King moved Labour day and made a long weekend, so of I went to visit Beirut. I booked the flights, hotel, transfers and tours at 10am on the Thursday and was on the 4pm plane, it is only 45mins and was full!

I was in my hotel by around 6pm and off down town, in the wrong direction as it turned out, but a cab took me to the right place – boy are we spoilt with taxi prices in Jordan! Beirut turned out to be reasonably priced except for taxis, I found it odd that a full day tour coast $80US but a 10 minute taxi ride could cost $10US, apparently it is all down to the cost of fuel!

As I got out of the taxi the vista of the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque came into spectacular view. It was built after the war (1975-2001) and opened in 2008, modeled on the famed Blue Mosque it certainly lightup the night.

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As a symbol of unity with the Christians of Lebanon next door to the mosque can be found the Cathedral of Saint George, this was buitl in 1755 for the Maronite community.

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The down town area is surrounded by reminders of the war, ruined buildings can still be seen, but there has made a lot of effort to restore the area. The central eating area is next to the Roman ruins which are aslo being restored.

The other main mosque is the Al-Omari mosque which is just other the main eating area and has an interesting history. The Crusaders built the church that is now the mosque during the first crusades around 1115AD.

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On the Friday I toured to Byblos and old sea harbour area used by the ancient Phonecians. The old castle sits high on the hill with lovely views.

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From here we Harissa by cabel car and then saw the caves at Jeitta.

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Saturday I took a tour of Baalbeek in the Beeka valley, which is part of the fertile crescent and an extension of the Jordan valley. Baalbeck is an amazing roman ruin and below is a picture of the temple of naughty Bacchus.