A partner-in-crime of mine is currently in county. These days she’s stationed in Dushanbeh, or something like that. That’s in Tajikistan. Had to look it up. Next to Uzbekistan and Turkmentistan, or – as another of her friends phrases it – one of the Jerkistans.
Zubaida Aqueduct
And so this is an opportunity to go ‘in country’. So we got our old guidebook out and went to look for a Roman aqueduct right here in Beirut that – according to the sources – finds its equal in Pont du Gard in Nimes, France . That one is on the World Heritage List.
Ours is partially in somebody’s orange grove, and partially in somebody’s back yard (where did I read that before?). This particular somebody build a green concrete wall right against it for a tennis court. Oh well. In a 1,000 years from now, the aqueduct will still be there, the tennis court won’t (I hope).
Ours is partially in somebody’s orange grove, and partially in somebody’s back yard (where did I read that before?). This particular somebody build a green concrete wall right against it for a tennis court. Oh well. In a 1,000 years from now, the aqueduct will still be there, the tennis court won’t (I hope).
In France they built an entire theme park around their aqueduct, complete with web site, educational services and what not all. You pay 15 euros just to enter the premises, and 5 euros for parking. Talking about a money maker.
How do we deal with historical monuments like this in Lebanon? Not. It took us quite some time finding it; there are no signs anywhere. It is not on the World Heritage List, and we were the only people visiting the place, while a steady stream of commuters drove under it. Granted, it isn’t as complete as the one in France, but I’ve seen lesser ruins being blown into magnificent proportions.
The Beirut River, aqueduct in the distance
And it is, indeed, right in Beirut. Or actually, in Sinn el-Fill, a suburban neighborhood. The aqueduct was built during the reign of emperor Aurelius (c. 273 AD), so it is almost 2,000 years old, and was used to transport water from the Daychounieh spring (Some 20 km southeast of Beirut) to Beirut. The Daychounieh spring is on the eastern side of the Beirut river, and at some point the water had to be transferred to the western side of the river to channel it to onward top Beirut. (Source), hence this bridge.
The left bank. You can't acces the (larger) part on the right bank; it's all private property (go figure)
It was, at one point in time, 240 meters long and some 40 meters high. The middle section supposedly collapsed during an earthquake in 551 AD, and the upper part has disappeared over the years.
It is composed of 3 levels of arches (just like Pont du Gard) with a channel running on top, and is built slightly slanted, as the drawing shows, so gravity would transport the water. They could control the water flow, and had places where they could clean out sediments.
The auqduct, named Zubaida, apparently was also used as a way station for the Roman military in Lebanon, but other than that, there’s almost no background information on the thing. I think maybe I should write a guidebook about this country myself.
5 comments:
Well isn't that something. I'll tell you, one of the things that shocked me the most when I took my family around to some of the sites here in Lebanon is the relative disinterest in maintaining the sights. Not once did I see anyone looking to make sure that the people on the tour were respecting the ancient hertiage sights by not litering, or by just destroying the sights in whatever way they saw fit. I don't know, it just seems like they still don't understand the importance of these sights to the country. I hope that the Ministry of Culture does more to preserve these sights, and to make a note of the one you found!
It's really sad seeing how little we care about preserving these monuments.. to think that tourism is our largest source of income..
And commenting on:
"In a 1,000 years from now, the aqueduct will still be there, the tennis court won’t (I hope)."
You might not have to wait that long. In ten years, the owners of those private lands will find profit in selling to some big development company, and the tennis court might remain, we might even get a supersized mall around it, but the aqueduct might not make it.
PS: Tourism in Lebanon, as you might have noticed, mostly revolves around rich Arabs spending their money on useless junk (and the occasional drink) in Lebanon. Cultural tourism is just a side show..
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