Palnitkar Family Trip to Lebanon – Dec 19 – 21, 2018

Wed, Dec 19, 2018 – Beirut

We landed at Beirut airport. We saw Christmas festivities. Lebanon has 40% Christian population, 54% Muslim population.

Beirut airport was extremely modern. The immigration officers were extremely professional. We had been told that the area near the airport was in the control of Hezbollah and it could be dangerous. The lady at the tourist information center told us that Lebanon was totally safe and we could go anywhere.

Public transportation was not available. We took a taxi from the airport to our AirBnb. Cost was about $20. Exchange rate 1 USD = 1,508 Lebanese Dinar, fixed exchange rate.

Our accommodation was in a building called Auntie Lulu on Mahatma Ghandi Road 🙂 in a district called Hamra. When we reached home it was raining heavily. Anu and Sahil stayed in the apartment. for the rest of the day.

I visited the American University in Beirut which was walking distance. The American University of Beirut (AUB) is a private, secular and independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the Middle East, securing the top spot in the Arab region in the 2018 QS World University Rankings. It has an endowment of $605 million.

I visited the Archaelogical Museum inside the university. ​​​​​The AUB Archaeological Museum, founded in 1868, is the third oldest museum in the Near East, after Cairo and Constantinople.

Entrance to the museum was free. It was a pretty nice museum. It talked about the Phoenician alphabet invented in Lebanon which was a precursor to the Greek Alphabet.

With approaching Christmas, there were festivities everywhere.

Thu, Dec 20, 2018 – Jeitta Grotto, Lady of Lebanon, Byblos

Instead of taking a taxi, we rented a car at Avis in Beirut and decided to spend the entire day visiting various places in Lebanon. It is not a big country. The whole country can be covered in 3 days.

The first place we went to was the Jeitta Grotto.

The Jeitta Grotto was chosen as an official finalist representing Lebanon and selected as one of the 14 worldwide landmarks of nature competition.

The Jeita Grotto is a system of two separate, but interconnected, karstic limestone caves spanning an overall length of nearly 9 kilometres (5.6 mi). The caves are situated in the Nahr al-Kalb valley within the locality of Jeita, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Though inhabited in prehistoric times, the lower cave was not rediscovered until 1836 by Reverend William Thomson; it can only be visited by boat since it channels an underground river that provides fresh drinking water to more than a million Lebanese.

We then drove to a town called Harisa which has the statue of the Lady of Lebanon. It was a beautiful drive in some very tall mountains.

We saw a great view of the Mediterranean from Harisa. Harissa-Daraoun is a municipality that consists of two villages, Harissa and Daraoun, in the Keserwan District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. The municipality is located 27 km north of Beirut. Its average elevation is 550 meters above sea level and its total land area is 435 hectares. Harissa is accessible from the coastal city of Jounieh either by road or by a nine-minute journey by a gondola lift, known as the Téléphérique. Harissa is home to an important Lebanese pilgrimage site, Our Lady of Lebanon. It attracts both pilgrims and tourists who want to enjoy views of the bay of Jounieh.

Basilica of Saint Paul is a church in Harissa-Daraoun

Lady of Lebanon Statue.

Another view of Jounieh Bay from Harisa. I would rate Beirut as one of the most beautiful cities behind Rio de Janeiro and Prague.

Next, we drove to Byblos. Byblos, known locally as Jbeil (Arabic), is the largest city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000 BC and continuously inhabited since 5000 BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This Phoenician city, known to the Greeks as Býblos and to the Romans as Byblus, was important for their import of papyrus from Egypt. The English word “Bible”, ultimately deriving from the Greek words bíblos and biblíon, may have originated with the Greeks’ mispronunciation of the city or its Egyptian export. Even the word biblio related to books originated from this city.

We visited the Byblos Castle, a Crusader castle in Byblos, Lebanon. In Crusader times it was known as the castle of Gibelet. It is on the Mediterranean sea.

We drove back from Byblos to Beirut city center. Traffic was quite dense. The traffic is a cross between US and India. They partially follow rules 🙂

We then walked around Beirut City Center. Here is the Mohammed Al Amin Mosque also referred to as the Blue Mosque, is a Sunni Muslim mosque located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. It is a beautiful mosque, but interestingly, notice a Christian Cross next to the mosque minarets. It belongs to the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral which is adjacent to the mosque. Interesting co-existence of the two religions.

Christmas festivities in the air in Beirut.

We ate some traditional Lebanese food at Kababji restaurant on Hamra street. Yum!

Friday, Dec 21, 2018 – National Museum, Beit Beirut, Raouche Rocks

We then went to Beit Beirut, a building that is preserved in a war-torn style. It is preserved as a memory of Lebanese Civil War during 1975-1990 between the Christians and the Muslims which claimed 120,000 lives. There was also an exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon as a result of the war. This building was on the dividing line between the North and the South. Bullet and shell marks are seen on the building.

We then walked along the sea to Zaitunay Bay and then took a taxi to Raouche Rocks or Pigeon Rocks. Raouché  is a residential and commercial neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon. It is known for its upscale apartment buildings, numerous restaurants, and cliff-side cafés that line Avenue de Paris, which forms part of the Corniche Beirut. The corniche or the wide, seaside sidewalk of Avenue de Paris is popular on weekends and evenings where strollers and joggers crowd the pavements.

Off the coast of Raouché, there is a natural landmark called the Pigeons’ Rock (also known as the Rock of Raouché). Located at Beirut’s westernmost tip, the two huge rock formations, which stand like gigantic sentinels, are a popular destination for locals and visitors alike.

We could walk all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful location.

We then went to our AirBnb and headed for Rafic Hariri Airport in Beirut for our flight to Amman Jordan in the evening at 7.20 pm.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Lebanon. It can be covered in 4 days max. But it is a great place, safe, modern and very tourist friendly.

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If you are interested in all the countries on our trip, here are the links.
Egypt Trip – Dec 13 – 19, 2018               Blog     Photos Only

Lebanon Trip – Dec 19 – 21, 2018          Blog      Photos Only

Jordan Trip – Dec 21 – 25, 2018              Blog      Photos Only

Israel Trip – Dec 26 – 31, 2018                Blog      Photos Only