Lebanon Part 3: Around Beirut

We spent about a day and a half exploring Beirut, along with the evenings when we came back from the out-of-town visits. We had a good list of 'must sees' in the city, and I think we hit all of them. Beirut was such an interesting city of old vs. new. The country underwent a major civil war and multiple additional wars since the mid 1970's. The country has been through lot of turmoil. What was most impressive to me, was despite the war-torn recent history, this place was revived, and it was full of life and culture, and the people seemed so resilient. You can see the affects of the multiple wars around the city, but on the other hand, much of the city is newly re-built, and the economy appeared to be healthy. It really felt like we were in a European city, much more than in the middle east.  The people are very open-minded and dress similar to the U.S.  - I wore shorts and tank tops almost every day, which was a nice change. We heard a lot of Arabic, but we heard lots of French too, and the people spoke impeccable English. It was such a fascinating place to visit and we are thankful for the opportunity we had.

The pictures are out of order, but here are the highlights of what we saw. The evening after we visited the Cedars, we went to the Corniche area and visited the American University of Beirut. It was a beautiful campus overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Though I think the boys favorite part were the many stray cats walking around :).

Then we wanted to walk to a popular neighborhood called Al Hamra. The street we walked down to get there was under a lot of construction!

After a bit of walking, we finally made it to Al-Hamra. The area reminded me a lot of walking down 5th Avenue in NYC. Lots of shops, food stands, and restaurants.

We saw lots of amazing graffiti art as we walked through the city. The city is easy to get around by foot, and we did a lot of walking (and cabbing because it was really hot and humid), but the boys were troopers in the heat.

The boys needed haircuts, so we popped into a barber shop. Looking good with their Lebanese haircuts :).

The flag is displayed all over the city.

There was a big mosque and church right next to our hotel, both equally as loud. It was a nice change to hear the church bells ringing throughout the day, since we are used to hearing the Call to Prayer five times a day where we live.

Right outside our hotel was by the Parliament building. Our hotel was in a great central location in the middle of downtown to walk to many places, and since it was by the government buildings, it was secured off to vehicle traffic so it was more quiet at night.

We found the I love Beirut sign down the street from our hotel and the boys enjoyed climbing on it each day!

We had a friend posted in Beirut, and we met him for dinner one evening in a really cute neighborhood. I wish I took more pictures of the area, it was really trendy with lots of boutiques, art shops, and restaurants. It was only a couple of miles from our hotel, but the traffic in the city is horrendous and it took about 30 minutes to get there.  On the positive side, the boys enjoyed a very slow cab ride through the sunroof!

Another day we visited an area called Raouche, to see the famous Pigeon rocks. This area was at the western most part of the Corniche, and it was a touristy area with lots of hotels and restaurants. It reminded Nathan and I of the South Florida beach area. The rocks were really gorgeous to see from up top. It was a narrow and rocky path down, so we opted to view from above.

One afternoon we visited the National Museum of Beirut, which was very interesting. The museum contained items that were excavated all the way back to prehistoric times, and they had items from many of the major eras in history. When the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975, the museum was on the front line of the fighting and suffered a lot of damage from the war. Fortunately, most of the artifacts were saved by different means. The museum underwent a major renovation after the war in the mid 1990's, and it is now the leading collector for Phoenician objects.

Caleb loves anything 'Egypt' and enjoyed seeing a Sphinx

But his favorite part was the mummies!

Outside the museum you can see some of the structures that have not been re-built after the war.

So many kittens, so little time!

The area close to our hotel. The buildings reminded us of Buenos Aires, and Nathan said Paris (I've never been there), both french architecture. The odd thing was most of the building was not populated, just the restaurants on the bottom.

One evening we wandered through a nearby neighborhood, to look for an art shop. Unfortunately it was Sunday and they were all closed, but we enjoyed walking through a new part of town.

Many people painted around their windows.

And this corner just had a lot of exposed wires!

We realized there was a lot of police cars parked on the road. Not sure what that meant, but we decided it was time to walk back!

I loved all the colorful fruit and veggie stands on the streets.

On the way back, we visited the Roman Baths. This particular public bath was built in 2 AD and operated until 6 AD. It was excavated in 2009, and integrated into an apartment building in 2013. The building is built on top of the baths, really interesting!

Here it is...

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Martyr's square. This is a historic place in the city that got its name in 1931, when martyrs were executed there under the Ottoman rule. In the 1950's the square became built up with coffee-houses and movie theaters, but during the Civil war in the mid 1970's, it became the demarcation line that divided the city in half.

On the way home, I saw this interesting plaque on the sidewalk that read, "How can we build a Lebanon without the participation of the youth and the new generation, while their opinion is still ignored."

Sweet Benjamin made friends with some local boys and we watched them play soccer for a while.

He is so extroverted and loves anything sports. Every country we have traveled to, he has made a friend, and we love this about his sweet nature!

The mosque and church right next to our hotel.

We are so thankful for the opportunity to take this trip! It was fun, interesting, and really opened our eyes to the beauty of this country. Next stop...Cyprus!