Sidon Honey tYre harbor Old (and new) Ruins
We celebrated the end of the work week with a traditional Lebanese evening (we watched the movie Skyfall). The opening scene took place in Istanbul at the Grand Bazaar where Nazy and I had just been. For the weekend, Darius had planned trips to the Cedar Forest and the cities of Sidon and Tyre. The weather, which had been spectacular while Darius was working, degraded significantly as the weekend approach.
“Well, Dad, there is a 100% chance of weekend rain in Lebanon,” Darius said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Can’t hear you over the thunder,” Darius replied.
“Perhaps it will be ‘on and off’ rain,” I suggested. Optimistically. “Where shall we go?”
It was pouring rain as we headed south from Beirut. However as we drove along the Mediterranean Sea, patchy spots of blue sky were frequently, eh, often, eh, sometimes, eh, occasionally, okay, rarely visible.
As we drove, Darius told us about our destination.
“... Sidon is one of the three oldest cities in the world, Dad. Behind Damascus...”
“Don’t want to go there.”
“ ... and Byblos. It’s been inhabited for about 9000 years. It has been Phoenician trading center, an Assyrian capitol, a Persian province, a part of Alexander’s empire, a Roman colony, a crusader fortress, a Byzantine ...”
“I conclude that the best time to see Sidon was 2000 years ago,” I interrupted. “Before the ruins were ruined.”
“You’ll like the fortress and Mom will like the Souq’s.”
The fortress was in great shape, but when it started to drizzle, we crossed the street to visit the covered Souq Market.
“It’s not exactly the Grand Bazaar,” I thought.
Nazy was eying some fresh lemons when the drizzle turned to rain. We dashed under the (leaking) roof.
At first glance, neither Nazy nor I saw anything tempting. Darius, on the other hand, spotted a honey store.
“The proprietor,” I thought, “looks dangerous.”
Darius stopped to chat. Hani, the honey store, guy, had relatives living in Houston. He had honey from 16 different regions in Lebanon. And he wanted to set the record straight:
“The media make us look bad,” Hani explained. “Islam is a very gentle religion. A few crazy people and the media makes it sound like everyone of us is a terrorist. I’m afraid to visit America because of the TSA.” [Photo of Darius and Hani at left.]
“Common ground at last,” I thought.
We ended up selecting some honey (from the mountain bees), but Hani refused to accept payment. Darius and I shook hands with him; he wouldn’t shake hands with Nazy because..
“... she is too expensive,” he explained.
“Once again,” I thought, “he understands the situation.”
“He means that a woman is so precious and valued that he doesn’t want to sully her perfection by touching her,” Darius explained.
The weather continued to deteriorate, but we were undaunted. Darius, aware that the Cedar sanctuary was ‘just off the highway’, forged through the deluge. ‘Just off’ turned out to mean ‘at the top of a series of hairpin turns along a steep mountain slope’. Landslides and prudence had caused the authorities to close up early, so we looked at a cedar tree in the foggy distance and returned to Beirut. We were impressed by Darius’ skill on the highway and in the rain.
We planned an early start for the next day. Darius wanted to take us to Tyre (a bit south of Sidon) and the Hezbollah museum. We didn’t count on the Beirut marathon that effectively locked us into central Beirut until early afternoon. Following Darius - Mr. Spontaneity, we joined in the Marathon (taking off on the 7km Walk). Showing good judgement, we took a shortcut (if I’m not getting a tee shirt, I’m not obligated to follow the official route) and found a taxi to the Beirut Archeological Museum. They had a magnificent collection. We went back to Hamra, got the car and took off for Tyre.
Political aside: Sidon is a stronghold of the Sunni, anti-Syrian group in Lebanon. Tyre, in contrast, is a stronghold of Hezbollah, the pro-Syrian group in Lebanon. (Both groups are anti-Israel.) Tyre is being patrolled by a UN group with White Tanks and Canadian soldiers. The Lebanese Army, in camouflage tanks, handles the checkpoints in Sidon.
Although we left late, the drive was quick and reasonably smooth. Tyre, like Sidon, is an ancient city. The old city center, on an island, was considered to be impregnable. It withstood Nebuchadnezzar’s 13 year siege in 586 BC. A few hundred years later, Alexander showed less patience and more ingenuity. He build a sea bridge to link Tyre to the mainland and he constructed several 20-story siege towers an the city surrendered after 7 months.
Tyre is a volatile place. It was severely damaged during the last invasion. The city has a beautiful waterfront and one the best preserved Roman Hippodromes on the planet. [Note: The local documentation called the site a hippodrome; Google says that hippodrome is a Greek name, the Roman name is ‘circus’. In any event, it’s where chariot races took place.]
The ruins were in remarkably good shape. In fact, it appeared that the 2000 year old structures looked better than the 20th century buildings where people live now. (Click here to see.)
Unable to find the highway from the center of the city, we stopped to ask directions at a local restaurant - and decided to stay for dinner. Nazy liked the barbecued chickens that were rotating in the window.
The drive back to Beirut was smooth - until we got to Sidon. There was a huge roadblock with tanks and soldiers toting heavy weapons. Darius wasn’t fazed (“If it was something serious, they wouldn’t have a road block, they’d close the city.&rdquo
Well, Darius said he wasn’t fazed, but as soon as he got home, he checked the internet and found the problem. (See by clicking here.)
Finally, in Lebanon, as in Turkey, the security process is less than rigorous. At the airport, it is not necessary to separate the laptop or iPad, you can walk through wearing your shoes, belts and coats. When the alarm sounds (as it always does), you can say something like “It’s my belt” and they wave you through. You can imagine our surprise when I walked through with my camera and phone in my pocket, my Texas belt with bright stars and cowboy boots while Nazy’s (small, travel) manicure scissors (which had made it past the Swiss and Turkish inspections without problems) were confiscated. We were on our way to Egypt to see the Pyramids. More in the next edition.