For the Home Front III

Rauche Rock

More tourism. The cousin/niece has acquired a guide book, and during the day she walks all over Beirut, visits museums, and gets acquainted with the intricate habits of taxi drivers, and who wears what uniform. The length of the gun seems to be quite a shock to her. It is true, you do not ever see weapons in Holland, so an M16 on every street corner (or so it seems) can be disconcerting. Mind you, my guess is that if you look at the percentages, fewer people die of gunshot wounds in Beirut than in the US. Another guess is that we probably do not have the statistics on this particular fact.

Rauche Rock

This afternoon we walked to Rauche (Pigeon Rock). Even though I live practically next door, it is a sight I only visit when with tourists. Just like people living in Paris never ever set foot on the Eiffel Tower. And because my brother (my niece’s father) always accuses me of behaving like a quintessential school teacher when I am around (his) children, here is some information on Rauche.

Beirut behind Rauche

‘Almost all the rocks in Lebanon are sedimentary rocks and most of these are pale limestones.‘ (source). Limestone composed largely of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, because at one point in time, Lebanon was a lagoon, covered by a tropical sea. No, the sea level wasn’t that high, it’s just that the crust got uplifted. Didn’t you guys go through elementary school? ‘When Africa began to collide with Eurasia 50 million years ago, the seafloor of the ancient Tethys ocean began to buckle and rise’. (source)   (Are you reading this, Ysbrand? This is all very educational!) Limestone of course is very ‘soft’ rock, and subject to erosion. The waves of the Mediterranean have carved Rauche rock into its current shape, and eventually the rock will completely vanish, although not in my time.

The shores near Raouche have yielded the area's oldest evidence of human existence, flints and basic stone tools, which are displayed in the AUB Archaeological Museum. (I stole this quote somewhere but cannot remember from where)

In the Ferris Wheel

We hiked to another Beirut landmark; the Luna Park. These days it’s a sad collection of dilapidated machinery, and only the Ferris wheel seems to be functioning. For the moment.

You pay 2,000 LBP for a ride, and the man operating the machine will let you make as many turns as it suits him. And that was the tourism tip for the day.

I think hubbie has instructed the sons of some of his friends to take the cousin/niece out this week, so we will see what will ensue.