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| Inside the Temple of Niha |
We eventually did make it to the Beqaa Valley this week, as you may have figured out from the cedar forest. Our first stop was at Niha. I’ve been there before, and in order not to repeat myself, read it here. Destination Lebanon has a pamphlet on it as well
The place is easier to find since I was there last; there’s a big sign now on the main road.
What has become normal to me, is an amazement to a foreign visitor. You can just ‘walk’ inside a temple. Walk on the inside of the temple? Touch everything? Climb the stairs? Explore the passages under the temple?
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| The temples of Baalbeck are literally in the center of the town. Wouldn't it be nice, to have a temple in your back yard? |
When the cousin/niece visited temples in Athens, in Greece, she could not go inside any temple, but just walk around it. You were not around to touch anything, step on anything. And here we are like Indiana Jones, having the entire place for ourselves.
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| Baalbeck |
The second stop was of course Baalbeck, which is the only temple in Lebanon that has a number of rather unsavory characters hanging around it. The fun in this place is that you can visit landmarks without being swamped by adhesive vendors of fake artifacts, caps, T-shirts, bracelets and what not, unlike in Egypt or Syria. Except for Baalbeck. The steady flow of tourists is undoubtfully the cause of this.
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| Climb on anything you like. |
And that will be it for the touristic posts for a while. The cousin/niece gets on the plane tomorrow, so you have been given a reprieve. And Blogger tells me that in another 16 posts, I will have written 1,000 in all since 2005.
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| The typical picture of Baalbeck (Temple of Bachus, I believe) |
4 comments:
Would love to read a recap of your nieces thoughts about Lebanon!
Fantastic photos of Baalbeck btw.
I have not been back to Lebanon in a while. My last brief visit was over 10 years ago, but I am thinking about a trip this summer.
I am gonna pass on all the pamphlets and web page links you mention in your posts. Instead, I will use your blog as a guide. Do you provide tours for non-family members? :)
I was dismayed to read about Baalback, the unsavory characters, and the lack of tourists. As a kid, I have attended several concerts and shows at the Acropolis overlooking the temple of Venus. Every summer was jam-packed with concerts, plays, and shows. That was the early 70s. Alas, I was too young to remember most of them.
I have been enjoying your Blog for a numbers of years now. But I will wait for another 16 posts to congratulate you on your ‘millennial’ post. :)
Thank you Danielle, but I am telling you, it's a very small digital camera, nothing fancy, and then Picasa does the rest.
To H: You're out of luck! Summer is when I explore Europe, so I won't be here. Maybe I should write a guidebook one day. I hope you enjoy all those places as much as I do. It is a wonderful country :)
What about changing nappies on the altar of Baalbek! Ha! Top that!
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