Into the mountains of Lebanon

Lebanon is a very small country divided into three strips: a narrow coastal strip which rises sharply to 9000 feet mountains, which then fall sharply into the Beqaa Valley which is a high altitude Valley. On the other side of the Beqaa Valley is Syria.

Leaving the coast at Sidon, we had a long climb into the mountains, stopping at a wonderful old Ottoman Palace called Beit Edin. The children particularly liked the bath house in the palace.

After a further long climb, made more stressful by crazy Lebanese driving, we reached the Beqaa valley which is a high altitude valley between the Chouf mountains and the Syrian border. It is incredibly fertile. After weeks of desert and barren places, the ox-blood red soil of the valley comes as a shock to the system and the valley is brimming with fruit and vegetables (and allegedly top quality marijuana).

The object of our visit was the temple complex at Baalbek. It was worth the drive. There are three temples, one each to Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. They are massive and took 250 years to build. The foundation stones alone, so the guide claimed, weighed 400 tonnes each.

I fear the children will be disappointed when they get to Italy and see the Roman ruins there. It seems strange that the Romans should build such a massive complex so far from Rome. However it seems that they were keen to impress on the local inhabitants the size and majesty of the Roman empire. This "message" took over 200 years to build and cost thousands of lives. Again in Baalbek the flags of Hezbollah were prominent. The stall at the temples even sold wide ranges of Hezbollah t-shirts.