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The street running along the old market (on the left). Sea at the end of the road. |
My new favorite place, Saida. I drove there with
a friend, not for any reason in particular, but because we happened to be in
the neighborhood. Saida (also known as
Sidon) is the type of town that, if it were situated in say, France or Spain,
would be absolutely overrun with tourists from April to end of September.
You’d have throngs of people armed with cameras lining
the streets, stopping at every shop or alleyway, and pointing at the quaint
features of this medieval town. As it is, this town in situated in Lebanon, and
nobody but the locals hang out here. Which is nice for me, because tourists
hate it when a place is populated with other tourists.
It is quite a special town. It has a small historical
market, a ‘souq, which is absolutely authentic and alive.
There are narrow little streets, lined with puny
little shops, with alleyways, gateways and little doors branching off in all
directions. The street plan has clearly evolved over the centuries, instead of
being planned in one shot. You walk under little tunnels and arches, people
live above the souq in houses that can be reached by crooked and narrow
stairways. This is no place for wheelchairs. It is a totally pedestrian zone; cars
do not fit, and even donkey carts wouldn’t be able to make it through most of
the alleys. No idea how they used to stock their stores in the old days. Some
people move around on electrical scooters, so there is no traffic noise. Of
course there is the everlasting generator hum, due to the government’s equally
everlasting inability to provide a country with 24 hours electricity.
There are schools, mosques, churches (even a
small ‘cathedral’), a synagogue (abandoned), little workshops, a soap factory
(restored and turned into a museum), bath houses (some still in use) and even a ‘palace’ (opulent house, more
like it).
And so we spent some time finding our way
through the old souq.
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Garbage trucks do not fit, so there is a man with a broom stuck cleaning with a rolling bin |
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The entrance to a mosque |
I read up on the town, and am quite lirious
about it (as you will notice). Unlike Jbeil (Byblos), which seems to have been
restored with just tourists in mind, and Sour (Tyrus), which is pretty much a
dump, this market is in the process of being restored, bit by bit, in a rather
unobtrusive manner. You notice that it looks good, but it does not have the
Disney-like quality of the Jbeil souq, or like parts of the old market in
Tripoli. Not everything is (yet) cleaned up, so you still see the really old
buildings in disrepair, but it is easy to walk, there is no garbage, and if you
like good deals, this is the place to go.
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A bit of a stereo type, but I thought this man fit perfectly in this environment |
It probably isn’t true, but I imagine that this
is the way it must have looked in the Middle Ages. It would make a fantastic
back drop for a movie set in medieval times. This would require the removal of an
extensive network of cables, for electricity, phones and television, running
along the walls. Obviously these were
not used back in 1600, and were added as an after-thought.
This particular city-centre is a mix of many
time periods, but a lot of it is Ottoman (Turk), a time period which runs
roughly from 1500 to 1900.
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Dried ginger on the left, cinnamon bark, and larger cinnamon pieces on the right. Okra hanging over the box in the middle |
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Old kinds of dried beans, herbs and spices. In the back is something that looks like mummified oranges which I think it is. |
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Mloukhiyeh (which seems to be called Jew's Mallow in English.), a popular dish here. |
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And then there is the butcher. This is either sheep or goat, can't tell the difference. |
The town is known for a number of small industries,
such as glass blowing, soap making and carpentry, and these have largely been
maintained, although glass blowing is no longer present in the souq. Otherwise,
the market is divided up in section, a natural process, where shops sell
similar wares. There is a shoe market, complete with shoe makers, a jeweler’s
alley, an underwear and bra section (an extensive one), a vegetable and meat
section (rather small), and some parts only sell dried goods. One alley way
only sells upholstery and curtain materials. For your basic needs, you’d never
have to leave the souqs.
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The shoe market. Converse for $12. |
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And the shoemaker is right next door. |
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I thought shoe makers use glue, but apparently they use nails |
The old market is lined with slightly more
modern stores, but still very old-fashioned in their set-up and decor, and they
sell absolutely everything. From tea cups to brooms, to herbs, dish washing detergent,
hair dye and children’s toys. (for Dutch
readers; a bit of a Winkel van Sinkel idea. Some of the items they sell would be deemed
very exotic in Dutch eyes. Hand-made wicker baskets, feather dusters made from ostrich
feathers, wooden bird cages, many-colored water pipe hoses, prayer beads and
carpets, and metal devices used to heat up char coal for the barbeque (or the
argileh). I wonder how these guys do their inventory (if they even make one).
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The ostrich feathers on the right, argileh hoses hanging |
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Sponges (from the skeleton of some type of cucumbers), wicker baskets, herbs, canary cages, charcoal heaters etc. A bit of everything |
In the old days these items would have been
carried in from far away places, in caravans over trade routes (I am getting
carried away here). There are a number of old ‘khans’, where these traders from
around the region would come in, sleep, and trade their wares. Most of them are
in disrepair, the only one (the largest) that is restored is the Khan el-Franji
(The French market).
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Toys |
And of course, there are the inhabitants, which
are (I assume) the families of the store keepers, and so you see women with
their shopping bags, little children running around, and men on their way to
wherever. There are also your usual ambulant sellers, who move their ware,
usually seasonal fruit, on carts. This month strawberries seem to be in season,
as well as fresh almonds (never seen them in Holland, you eat them whole here,
skins and all) and akidinia (loquat, or eskadenia, in English). The town is
alive.
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These sell their wares from mobile carts |
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This man sells 'foul', broad beans, which you eat with lemon and kamouneh (cumin powder) |
Now if you were to shoot here a medieval movie,
all you’d have to do is remove the cables, provide the inhabitants with
medieval clothing, and tell just to continue their lives, and pretend the
cameras were not there. You might want to ask if they could hide the mobile
phones as well. Other than that, the place is authentic. No set builder could
recreate it as well as here.
The old town, of which about the market is a
quarter, is a jumble of buildings from different time periods with different
purposes (shops, religious places, houses, palaces). Some of them are in good
state, and many of the buildings that were restored have been done so with
funds from either private organizations (Haririr, Zeidan and Audi are big
sponsors), the Word Bank, the Islamic Wafc or foreign governments. Very few
restorations are paid for by the government.
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These ladies sells their goods right on the street. |
‘There are listed monuments that remain un‐restored and in dire need of immediate
intervention. (…) The owners who inherited the building are multiple and not in
agreement on how to proceed or who should invest or live in it. They do not
have the means to restore or upgrade the building. The government does not
offer financial support in the form of micro loans or subsidy programs. ‘
‘There are historic monuments that remain in
private ownership but rented out. Those who use the monuments pay old and low
rent and do not have the means for proper upkeep and restoration.’ (source)
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I really liked the way they displayed these shirts. They do put a lot of care in display, and what they have, is on display. |
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An old khan that has not been restored |
But since the restoration is not a joint and
gigantic operation affair, but everyone does its share, the place retains its ‘real
feel’- as far as I am concerned. Not all restorations are done the same, at the
same time and to the same extend. For a study on the old town, go here.
There is obviously more to Saida, as this only
shows you the old market, which consist of only a quarter of the old town, but
for the moment, this is my kind of town.
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The fountain on Sidon's main roundabout. I like how this app (Snapseed) can make pictures look like postcards from the 60's. |
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And a last one, the canary, which hangs in every single shop. |
Very sad, this country has so much unrealized potential, I keep saying if, if, if, the list is getting longer. Your Blog gives a little hope, but things keep getting worse.
ReplyDeleteI wish you saw Lebanon during the good times.
If you see the French Guy can you please ask him to fix the train for us, love your Blog! thank you for writing!
ReplyDeleteZo, de foto's zien er eindelijk weer goed uit.
ReplyDeleteY.
Been following you since the start (Im the one from Chicago, Kansas City, and now New York). Thanks for giving us all a perspective of Lebanon that doesn't exist in the media. Cheers from Queens NYC!
ReplyDelete