Another day trip from Beirut was to Byblos which bills itself as the world's oldest port and one of the earliest Phoenician city-states. The place looks to attract many visitors. The UNESCO site, not the most photogenic, is also hard to grasp. I don't think I have been to a more difficult site. It's a time/space warp. In a relatively small area, there are a dozen groups of structures dating from the 5th century BCE all the way to the Crusaders. In order to investigate earlier periods, some of the structures were relocated to a place nearby and reassembled. Such concentration of successive civilization is literally mind blogging.
The bus trip from Beirut to Byblos was short (45 minutes) but scenic. First we passed the site of the 2020 Port Explosion and its Memorials.
Then a good view of Mount Lebanon and the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon.
Some shots through the bus window of the coastal road going north and a short 15-second video.
The Crusader Castle dominates the Byblos Archaeological Site. First below is a view from SE Tower of much of the site. And second below is the Crusader Castle as seen from the site.
View down to the City Walls (right) that have been used and reworked from the Bronze Age to the Phoenicians to the Romans to the Ottomans to the Crusaders to now. Wow!
The relocated Roman Theater. Nice spot, eh?
Some enormus Phoenician Sarcaphagi near the grave shaft in which King Ahiram's (969–936 BC) tomb was found and can be seen in the Beirut National Musuem (an upcoming post).
The spring and well called The Source has supplied the site with water for millenium.
Bronze Age Temple Ruins and 19th Century Ottoman House.
Crusader Castle.
Obelisk Temple from 1600 BC.
Photo of the ruins of the main gate where the old city wall is 30+ meters thick. Oh my!
The Crusaders reused Roman columns laid endwise to strengthen the castle walls.
Sightseeing boats in the Byblos port.
Another tasty falafel meal to end our day trip!
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Tajikistan: Dushanbe
From Panjakent, we took a shared taxi to Dushanbe, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. It turned out to be a super scenic ride in the mi...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Khiva is really the first stop on our upstream tour of the Silk Road. An important post on the Silk Road, Khiva was razed and rebuilt many t...
-
From TashKent, we took a flight west to Nukus, located in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Nukus itself is a city establi...
-
Bukhara was a major city on the Silk Road. It had been the capital of various dynasties. Many of the buildings we see today originated duri...
-
It seems the more we travel, the more we are into archaeological sites. This time we went to Pachacamac, just to the south of Lima, and Hua...
-
From Samarkand, we crossed overland into Tajikistan to Panjakent, the first of many land border crossings to come. Even though Panjakent is ...
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
The Seoul City Wall was built in the 14-century. In the past 30 years the "fortress wall" has been restored and revitalized with a...
2 comments:
Interesting pictures! The falafel looks yummy!
Finding so interesting;)
Post a Comment