Welcome to Baalbeck

BAALBECKTOW E LC O M E

Discover responsibly the cultural, social and religious value of the City of Sun

All Rights reserved First edition 2012

©

ISBN 978-9953-0-2480-6

Baalbeck • Contents

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Table of Contents

All Rights reserved First edition 2012

©

ISBN 978-9953-0-2480-6

Baalbeck

How to get to Baalbeck

Geography and Climate

Baalbeck History

Baalbeck-Heliopolis: history of the city

Names of the City

The Bronze and Iron Ages 3500-333 B.C.

The Hellenistic period: 333-64 B.C.

The Roman era (64 B.C-333 A.D): the golden age of Heliopolis

The Byzantine era (330-636 A.D.): the death of a temple

The Islamic Arabic Conquest – 635 A.D.

The Umayyads – 635-750 A.D.

The Abbasids – 750-972 A.D.

The Fatimids (972-1075 A.D.) and the Seljuk Turks (1075-1139 A.D.)

The Ayyubids – 1139-1250 A.D.

Baalbeck under the Mamluks: the second golden age (1260-1516 A.D.)

The Ottomans – 1516-1918 A.D.

Baalbeck a city of contemporary Lebanon

Baalbeck Culture

Baalbeck a UNESCO World Heritage site

Baalbeck and the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development Project (CHUD)

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Baalbeck-Heliopolis: the monuments

Caesars and stones: the building of the sanctuary

The Triad of Heliopolis

IOVI OPTIMO MAXIMO HELIOPOLITANO (I.O.M.H.)

Juno of Heliopolis

The Archaeological Complex - Al Qalaa

Mercury of Heliopolis

Podium

Propylaeum

Hexagonal Forecourt

Great Court

Altar & the Tower

Columns & the Ritual Pools

Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus

Temple of Bacchus

Baalbeck’s Graffiti

Baalbeck Museum

Al Qalaa

Beit Nassif and Bustan al Khan

Temple of Venus

Temple of the Muses

Al Barbara Mosque

The Umayyad Mosque

The River Mosque

Al Hanabila Mosque

The Christian neighbourhood

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Temple of Mercury

Qubbat al-Amjad

Sheikh Abdallah Hill and Zawiyat al Yunini Mosque

Ras al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque

Ras al-Ayn spring

Architectural evolutions in Baalbeck

Qubbat Al-Sa’idayn

Roman and Ayyubid walls

Gouraud Barracks

Al Sayyida Khawla Shrine

Roman quarries

Shrine of Saint Elias

Qubbat Douris

Old Railroad Station

Famous people from Baalbeck

Mystics and saints from Baalbeck

Famous people in Baalbeck

Baalbeck Traditions

Festivals and special events

Baalbeck Tourism and Shopping Festival

The Solh family weddings

The 40 days memorial for Imam Hussein

The exiled convoy

The Baalbeck International Festival

Official Holidays

Dabkeh

What is Dabkeh

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Famous groups who perform dabkeh in Baalbeck

Nargileh

Baalbeck Tourism

Baalbeck Quality Label

Shopping in Baalbeck

Hotels and Accommodations in Baalbeck

Restaurants

Traditional sandwich…

Snack

Pastry shops

Cafés

How Baalbeck (and Lebanon) works

Be nice with Baalbeck

In case of…

Baalbeck Cookbook

Cookbook

Main ingredients in Lebanese and Baalbeck dishes

Appetizers

Main Dishes

Desserts

Drinks

Culinary glossary

Credits

Notes

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Baalbeck

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Baalbeck

Visitors can easily reach Baalbeck from Beirut through the President Emile Lahoud’s Highway (otherwise known as Damascus International Road ): from Al Sayyad roundabout and Hazmieh area you should go towards Jamhour – Kahale – Aley – Bhamdoun – Sawfar reaching Dahr El Beydar pass (1511 m ASL) – Chtaura – Zahle – Ablah – Tlaya - Douris. About 2 hours are needed to cover the 86 km that separate Baalbeck from Beirut.

If you are in Tripoli it is possible to follow this itinerary: Tripoli – Mejdlaya – Zgharta – Ehden – Hadchit – Becharre – Al Arz – Ainata – Zrazir – Deir al Ahmar – Baalbeck. The distance between Tripoli and Baalbeck is around 85 km: it will take you nearly 2 hours to reach the city from there. If you are on the northern side of Mount Lebanon, you simply have to take the Al Arz Road in the district of Becharreh which leads you to the Bekaa and Baalbeck in roughly 50 minutes (distance 55 km).

From the city of Kfardebian in Keserwan you can reach Baalbeck through Oyoun el Siman going to the other side of the mountain towards Baalbeck crossing Al Kouraymat Valley until you arrive to destination.Distance: 75 km Time: 1h20 min

You can reach Baalbeck from Zahle through Ablah, Majdelyoun and Douris. Distance: 35 km, Time: 1h

If you are coming from the western side of the Bekaa, you can go to Chtaura taking the main road to Baalbeck. Distance: 67 km, Time: 45 min

Visitors coming from the Syrian capital Damascus can reach Baalbeck through Al Masnah crossing point, passing then by Riyak and finally to Baalbeck.Distance: 85 km, Time: 1h30

Travellers from Homs can get to Baalbeck through Homs – Shinshar – Qasyr in Syria, Al Qaa, and Laboue in Lebanon. Distance: 105km, Time: 2h

How to ge t to

Baalbeck

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Baalbeck

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Location

Baalbeck is situated in the Northern Bekaa valley at 1150m ASL between the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. It lies on the eastern border of the plain close to the watershed of the rivers Leontes (Nahr Litani) and Orontes (Nahr el-Asi) as well as in the vicinity of the springs Ras al-Ayn and Ain Juj.

The city spreads over an area of 50km². Although most of the city is on flat level land, Baalbeck reaches an altitude of 1200 meters at Sheikh Abdallah Hill, which thus represents its highest point.

Climate

Baalbeck has a dry climate with an average annual rain fall of about 410 mm. Rainy days are distributed as follows: 10 days during the autumn season, 30 days in the winter and 20 days in the spring. The snow covers Baalbeck 10 days a year and is also accompanied by ice over 20 to 50 days annually. The lowest temperatures can go from 0 to -7 degrees; however the highest temperatures vary between 30 to 35 degrees. What grabs the attention about Baalbeck’s climate is the temperature excursion between day and night, since, especially during the month of August, the difference is three times higher than that of the Lebanese coastal cities.

Geography and C l imate

Baalbeck

Overview of Baalbeck from Sheikh Abdallah Hill

Baalbeck

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Topography

Baalbeck is enclosed between the Anti Lebanon mountain range to the east, the Mount Lebanon mountain range to the west, Hermel to the north and Zahle and Riyak to the south.

The district of Baalbeck covers over 14 km of the Bekaa valley. The population is concentrated mainly in the northern side, the north eastern and the southern side.

Farming and agricultural activities are among the main sources of income. Farms are generally small (average of 5 ha or 50 dunum) and only few big farms (more than 10 ha, or 100 dunum) can be found

Main extensive crops are wheat, barley, tobacco and potato. Some farmers grow, on a much smaller scale fruit trees such as apricot, apple, peach, pear, olive. Finally there are also few vineyards of different dimensions.

Baalbeck was known in the past for the production of royal cherry: tradition says that they used to be exported to Cairo on the wings of pigeons as per the request of the Sultans. As for the apricot of Baalbeck, a popular song describes it as follows: “Baalbeck apricot did not ripen”.

Moreover, livestock activities are present (mainly goats and sheep). Small bovine dairy farms can also be found as well as egg-laying hen farms. Seasonal agriculture plays a major role in Baalbeck. Irrigation is provided through channels coming from the Al Lajouj and Ras al-Ayn sources.

Mount Snir (2800m) is the highest point in the eastern mountain range of Baalbeck. Baalbeck is also characterized by abundant valleys which ensure irrigation water to the city. Some valleys extend over 20 km in length.

The abundance in springs makes Baalbeck an important water source. Al Lajouj, Dardarah and Ras al-Ayn are the city’s main springs. Wells were drilled in the city following the agricultural and population expansions. Ras al-Ayn provides water to the neighbouring houses and fields whereas Al Lajouj, located close to Nahle village, ensures the water supply to the local houses since the Roman era. Additional springs are situated in the eastern mountains, such as Ain al Jawza, Kawkab Ain El Delbe, and provide water to some villages in the southern part of Baalbeck. Other wells were also drilled randomly affecting the underground water.

Baalbeck

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Baalbeck • History

BaalbekRel ig ious S i tes


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Baalbeck History

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Names of the City

The origin of the name “Baalbeck” has been interpreted differently by scholars: some say that it is related to the god Baal, who was worshiped by the local inhabitants and whose cult was extended to Syria; Baalbeck, as Baal backi, may also be considered as Baal of the Bekaa or Weeping Baal, again referring to the same deity and to the abundance of water in the city. Other scholars refer to Baalbeck as Baal Nabak, a Semitic name meaning “the lord of the spring. In 323 B.C, the city was identified by the Greeks as Heliopolis, or “city of the sun”. The Romans used the Greek name until the Arab conquest in 635 A.D. It is possible

that the Semitic and Hellenized names were used simultaneously after 411 A.D.

The Bronze and Iron Ages 3500-333 B.C.

Archaeologists, while excavating within the great court of the Roman sanctuary, revealed the remains of a modest temple dating back to the Bronze Age (3500-1200 B.C). Little is known about the site during this period. In the course of the Iron Age (1200-333 B.C), an enclosed court was built with an altar. Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian dominance succeeded between 1200 and 333 B.C. The city was a religious kingdom.

Baalbeck-HeliopolisHis to ry o f the c i t y

Bacchus Temple - Detail of the sculpted architrave


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The Hellenistic period: 333-64 B.C.

In 333 B.C, Alexander the Great conquered the Bekaa. After his death in 323 B.C, his empire was divided between his generals. The Seleucids, descendants of Seleucos, one of his generals, established an Empire that controlled much of the modern Middle East.

They identified the god of Baalbeck with the Greek god of the sun, Helios, and the city was called Heliopolis “City of the Sun”.

The ancient enclosed court was enlarged. A podium was erected on its western side to support a temple

with Hellenistic features. Heliopolis prospered and became the major city of the Bekaa plain. The Greeks gave it the name Masyass. It was integrated into the network of caravan trade routes stretching all the way to India through Mesopotamia and Persia.

By the first century B.C., Arabic tribes, such as the Ituraeans, infiltrated the weakened empire. They established a principality in the Bekaa and were famous for their raids of the coastal cities. Coins from that era show that the Ituraean princes acted as supreme priests of the tribe and the sanctuary of Heliopolis.

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The Roman era (64 B.C-333 A.D): the golden age of Heliopolis

The Byzantine era (330-636 A.D.): the death of a temple

In 64 B.C, the area was integrated into the Roman Empire. In 36 B.C, Heliopolis was involved in one of history’s major love stories: it was offered as a gift to Queen Cleopatra of Egypt by the Roman general Marc-Anthony. In 30 B.C, Augustus defeated the lovers and regained control over the Bekaa.

The golden age of Baalbeck began when Emperor Augustus established a colony in 15 B.C for the veterans of the Gallica III legion to control the double trade route: one between the Mediterranean coast and the

In 333 A.D., Constantine, the first Christian emperor ordered the closing of the sanctuary and the construction of a church in Heliopolis. In 395, Emperor Theodosius the Great declared Christianity the official religion of the empire and ordered the destruction of the sanctuary. He dismantled the great altar in the big court, building with its stones the Christian basilica. He also converted

Syrian interior and the other between northern Syria and northern Palestine. It was named Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Heliopolitana, (the fortunate city of the honourable Julia, Heliopolis) in honour of Julia, his daughter.

Heliopolis controlled the Bekaa, which was Rome’s bread-basket. The grain was shipped to Rome through Berytus (Roman name for Beirut). Baalbeck was also famous for its luxurious gardens and streams. As for the Ituraeans, they were pacified by drafting them into the army.

the hexagonal court into a Baptistery and the Venus Temple into a chapel.

Between 610 and 622 A.D., the city suffered from the ongoing war between the Byzantines and the Persians. Its wealth decreased as the caravan trade routes linking it to Palmyra ceased to be used. By 635, the city had lost its position as a major religious centre and shrank into a modest town.


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The Islamic Arabic Conquest – 635 A.D.

The Umayyads – 635-750 A.D. The Abbasids – 750-972 A.D.

Abu Ubaydah bin Al-Jarrah, the chief of the Arab troupes, was sent by Muawiya to chase the Byzantine army from the Bekaa. Many combatants lost their life during the fightings and eventually the city surrendered. Abu Ubaydah, according to the Islamic law, delivered a letter of protection to the people of Baalbeck. This letter provides information on the identity

Muawiya, the first Umayyad caliph set up a mint in Baalbeck. On coins minted in Baalbeck, the Semitic and Hellenized names feature side by side.

Under the Abbasids, Baalbeck was part of the complex trade web that covered the Caliphate. The city became famous for the high quality of its agricultural products and the low market prices. Baalbeck’s urban structure reflected the typical Islamic city pattern: a Medina, with a great Friday Mosque, souks, caravanserais and hammams.

and ethnic/confessional composition of the people of Baalbeck: Rum (the local Byzantine Christians), Arabs and Persians, (who probably remained after the Persian campaign in 610). The letter also guarantees the herding rights of the shepherds, a hint shedding light on what might have been an essential source of revenue for the locals.

Wooden carving Umayyad Mosque

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The Fatimids (972-1075 A.D.) and the Seljuk Turks (1075-1139 A.D.)

The Ayyubids – 1139-1250 A.D.

Later on, the city was incorporated into the Fatimid caliphate in 972 A.D. until the Seljuk Turks conquered it in 1075. The Seljuks were warrior tribes recruited to re-establish Abbasid power. They used the city in their war against the crusaders who occupied the coastal towns and western highlands of modern day Syria, Lebanon and Palestine since 1099.

In 1139, Najm al-Din Ayyub, a Kurdish chief, was appointed governor of the city by the Zengids. His mission was to rebuild the defensive walls and to defend the city and the Bekaa from the incursion of the crusaders. His son, the famous Salah al-Din, spent his childhood in Baalbeck. The Ayyubid princes would turn the sanctuary into a fortress. In 1170, the city was severely destroyed by a


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Ayyubid Fortifications

heavy earthquake. In 1182-1230, Al Malik al-Amjad Bahramshah, Saladin’s grandnephew, became governor of the city. He extended his authority over the entire Bekaa and won decisive battles against the crusaders. He built a palace within the ruins of the sanctuary and the shrine known as Qubbat al Amjad on Sheikh Abdallah’s hill. He was also able to draw water to the houses taking advantage of the

Roman construction works. After his assassination in 1230, the city entered a phase of instability and was heavily destroyed and sacked by the invading Mongols in 1258.

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Baalbeck under the Mamluks: the second golden age (1260-1516 A.D.)

The Mamluks defeated the Mongols in 1258. Baibars, the great Mamluk Sultan, repaired the citadel of Baalbeck and brought back the city to its former glory.

Syria experienced tremendous development under the Mamluks: Damascus and Aleppo became central industrial cities. As a consequence, the road linking them to Baalbeck turned into a vital access for traders that brought benefit to the city. Lebanon was at that time the main supplier of sugar.

The produce was grown in the Bekaa plain and Baalbeck was one of the main processing centres. Baalbeck distinguished itself as a fabric manufacturing centre.

A special cloth made of wool and cotton was named after the city of Baalbeck. Furthermore, it is reported that the use of Baalbeck’s famous libass al ehram (the Mecca

ritual clothing) reached Morocco and Spain. The city counted among its prized products wooden utensils and spoons with a quality that was unmatched anywhere else. A kind of grape molasses, hardened and stuffed with almonds and other nuts, contributed to the fame of the city as a manufacturing centre.

Baalbeck managed also to develop its role as an intellectual centre. The city was surrounded by mosques, schools, a hospital and dervish housings. Al-Najmiyah school was in particular devoted to Sufi studies. Nevertheless, during the Mamluk rule, Baalbeck unfortunately also experienced also tremendous disasters: the city suffered in fact from the plague during the 14th

and 15th century. Eventually, in 1517 A.D., the Mamluk sultanate came to an end in Syria and Lebanon.


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The Ottomans – 1516-1918 A.D.The Ottomans conquered the region and established their rule which lasted until the end of World War I in 1918.

Baalbeck was administered as a nahiyeh, or district, of the central sandjak (governorate) of Damascus. The main centre of the Baalbeck district was of course the city of Baalbeck itself. It was connected to the inland Syrian towns of Homs and Hama by the Orontes River.

Baalbeck was among the most fertile and productive parts of Ottoman Syria. Moreover, Baalbeck was a crossroads for the caravans going from Damascus to the coast, and from Northern Syria to Galilee and Palestine. Hence its importance on the economic and strategic level.

During the 16th and 17th period, the Harfush emirs were appointed as agents by the Ottoman state to tax and police Baalbeck in 1555 A.D.

Starting from late 16th century, the Ottomans began in fact to assign

tax farming contracts to local tribal leaders rather than attempting to impose direct control over remote and unruly hinterland areas. The Harfush received the iltizam (farming tax) for the Bekaa as well as a rank in the provincial military hierarchy in recognition of their long-standing position of dominance within the local Shiite society. It should be noted that the Harfush were able at the prime of their rule to extend their authority beyond the boundaries of Baalbeck and Bekaa regions. They were in fact frequently appointed governors of Homs and occasionally of Palmyra.

During the Harfush period, which lasted for two centuries, Baalbeck suffered several vicissitudes. The city was in fact impoverished and emptied from its inhabitants, who had chosen to flee to Zahle or Hermel.

This era was nevertheless characterized by the prosperity of agriculture in Baalbeck: the cultivation of mulberry was particularly diffused reaching the

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number of six hundred thousand trees. The peasants were also growing wheat, maize, grapes, pomegranates and cherries as Jean de la Roque had the opportunity to note during his visit in 1689.

The history of the city under the Harfush is subject to many controversies and is still under study by historians.

In 1751, the population was estimated at five thousand. Later on, in 1759 a heavy earthquake hit Baalbeck and this tragic event could have put an end to the settlement inside the citadel. In 1784, the French traveller Volney mentioned in fact that the population at that time counted only around two thousand people.

The Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Baalbeck in 1810 and reported on his writings the life of Baalbeck and its citizens under the Harfush emirs. Their main source of living originated from cattle, but

there were also handicraft activities carried out by men. “The women are esteemed the handsomest of the neighbouring country, and many Damascenes marry Baalbeck girls.”

The Harfush emirate ended in 1865 when the Ottoman government ordered the last of the Harfush emirs to be deported to Edirne.

Baalbeck was not affected by the sectarian conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Damascus, the Bekaa, Mount Lebanon and Beirut, particularly the incidents of 1840 and 1860. The city’s first municipal council was established in 1880. In 1887, a fee of a quarter Riyal Majidi (Ottoman currency) was imposed for the first time to visit the temples. The tariff was collected by the Municipality.

At that time, Baalbeck experienced a period of wealth, especially in the Christian quarters around Sheikh Abdallah Hill.

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In that period, the region witnessed the presence of many European travellers: the visit of Emperor William II to the Holy Land, Damascus, Beirut and Baalbeck in 1898 can certainly be considered one of the most illustrious remains. Michel Alouf, first curator of the Temples, received him and the Emperor was so carried away by the sight of the temples that he ordered to organize an expedition to Baalbeck to carry out the first scientific survey of the ancient buildings. Within a month, the German archaeological team he dispatched was at work on the site. They worked in Baalbeck from 1900 to 1904 and produced illustrated and meticulously detailed volumes.

Records show that the population in Baalbeck increased again to 5000 in 1904 and reached the number of 5200 inhabitants in 1913.

World War I broke out in 1914. Baalbeck, like the rest of Lebanon, had

its share of sufferings. On August 21, 1915, at dawn, the Turkish authorities executed thirteen Lebanese prominent figures. One of the martyrs was Saleh Haidar of Baalbeck. He had founded the Literary Club association in Istanbul in 1909. He aimed at settling differences between the Arabs and the Committee of Union and Progress (the Young Turks). Jamal Pasha also decided to expel some Lebanese after receiving information about possible collaboration between them and the French. Among those was Nakhle Mutran, member of a well-known Baalbeck family and cousin of the famous poet Khalil Mutran. He was thus arrested and exiled, later he was found dead on the way to Aleppo.

Meanwhile, “Al Fatat” (Arab Youth), an anti-Ottoman society was founded. One of its founding members was Rustum Haidar of Baalbeck. Haidar attended with Emir Faisal in 1918 the Peace Conference in Versailles. He then left to Iraq, when Faisal was proclaimed Emir.


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27Ottoman Architecture - detail of the door frieze

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Baalbek • History

Baalbecka city of contemporary Lebanon

World War I ended in 1918 and the French mandate was proclaimed over Lebanon in 1920. On September 1, 1920 Greater Lebanon was established by General Henri Gouraud.

The Bekaa was officially annexed to Mount Lebanon and thus Baalbeck became part of the enlarged Lebanese territory.

In 1943, the citizens of Baalbeck participated along their fellow compatriots in the struggle to end the French mandate. Lebanon was declared independent on November 22, 1943.

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Baalbek • History

General Henri Gouraud

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Baalbeck • Culture


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Baalbeck Culture

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Baalbeck became part of the World Heritage List in 1984. This list includes 962 sites, forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which UNESCO considers as having outstanding universal value. Lebanon has four other archaeological and natural sites on the list: Anjar (included in 1984), Byblos (1984), Tyre (1984), Ouadi Qadisha and the Cedars of God(1998). In Baalbeck UNESCO took under its protection the Temples of Jupiter, Bacchus, Venus and Mercury, alongside the entire town within the Arab walls, as well as the south-western quarter between Bustan al Khan, and the Mosque of Ras al-Imam al-Hussein in Ras al-Ayn.

Baalbeck is one of the most celebrated sanctuaries of the ancient world. Its monumental ensemble is one of the most impressive testimonies of the

power, wealth and magnificence of the Roman empire. Dedicated to the Heliopolitan triad (Jupiter, Juno and Mercury), the Roman temples of Baalbeck are amongst the largest ever built (as witnessed by the scale of Jupiter temple) and the best preserved (Bacchus temple). As for the round temple of Venus, its layout and refinement are unique in the Roman world. This gigantic religious complex is a unique site that reflects the achievements of Roman architecture as well as its adaptation to local beliefs.

In spite of extensive restoration in the 1960s and the 1980s, and the impact of armed conflict which brought unplanned development, the overall authenticity of the site has remained intact thanks to the efforts of national and international bodies.

Baalbecka UNESCO World Heritage site


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Baalbeck

Tyre

Anjar

World HeritageSites in Lebanon

Byblos

Ouadi Qadisha and the Cedars of God

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Baalbeckand the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development Project (CHUD)

The Lebanese Republic received a loan from the World Bank, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Italian Cooperation, the Agence Française du Développement (AFD) to cover the cost of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development Project (CHUD) in Baalbeck, Tyre, Sidon, Tripoli and Byblos.

Work started in 2005. The project aims at increasing the social economy of the historic cities. The World Bank grant specifically made available for Baalbeck is 16 million US Dollars, whereas the Italian contribution directly assigned for the city reaches around 5 million Euros. These funds are mainly allocated for restoration and rehabilitation works in the inner city of Baalbeck and for the conservation of the Roman temples

The World Bank component is working on repairing and restoring sidewalks, streets and houses in a way that honours their historical past. Also, it is developing easily accessible parking lots in the city and next to the archaeological site. It is also aiming at recreating Baalbeck’s old meat and vegetable market.

The Italian financing is mainly devoted to the restoration and valorisation of the archaeological sites (namely to the conservation of Jupiter and Bacchus Temples with relevant elaboration of suitable visiting paths) as well as to the re-qualification of Baalbeck Serail.

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Cella of the temple of Bacchus


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1- Semicircular stone benches2- Propyleum3- Hexagonal court4- Great court5- Altars6- Pools for ritual cleansing and solitary columns

Baalbeck-HeliopolisThe monuments

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7- Temple of Jupiter8- Temple of Bacchus9- Ibrahim Mosque10- Mamluk tower11- Temple of Venus12- Temple of the MusesT- Podium

Plan of the Archaeological Complex: courtesy of the Ministry of Culture-Directorate General of Antiquities, Lebanon.


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Caesars and stones: the building of the sanctuary

In 15 B.C, Emperor Augustus (63 B.C. - 14 A.D.) gave orders to construct a temple dedicated to Jupiter Heliopolitanus. Nero (54-68 A.D.) built the tower-altar opposite the Temple of Jupiter. In accordance with a Semitic tradition adopted by the Romans, the altar presumably allowed pilgrims to stand at given times on the terrace to admire the figure of the god at the back of the temple.

Trajan (98-117 A.D.) built the main courtyard leading to the Temple of Jupiter. The columns of those porticoes and façades came from the red granite quarries of Aswan in Egypt.

The Temple of Bacchus, built by Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.), stands behind the great courtyard. This marvel of architecture gives an excellent idea of what the overall religious site of Heliopolis looked like, since it is the best preserved monument of this great complex.

The Temple of Venus, which stands a bit apart from the Bacchus and Jupiter Temples, was built by Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.). Under his reign the colony received the jus italicus, i.e. the Roman civic law, which entitled the local inhabitants to be recognized as Roman citizens.

Once the temples construction was completed, the Roman emperors turned their energies to building courtyards and the main entrance to the religious complex. Caracalla (211-217 A.D.) took charge of the latter and built the Propylaeum (entrance way). It is said that a legionary chief financed the carving of two bronze capitals in honour of the gods of Heliopolis and Caracalla.

Emperor Philip the Arab (244-249 A.D.) was the last to add a monument - the hexagonal forecourt - to the sanctuary. Its layout is purely Semitic and might have been linked to rituals honouring the celestial powers of Jupiter Heliopolitanus.

Fifteen Roman emperors ruled and died between the beginning of the construction of the temples complex and its completion.

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The origin and identity of the great god of Heliopolis is unknown. He is probably Ba’al Hadad, the Semitic god of thunder, winter and fertility who was later assimilated with the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. He represents the male element in the triad and the generative forces of nature. His Roman era statues reveal his Semitic identity. He is depicted as a hieratic figure standing between two bulls, the ultimate symbol of virility in the ancient world, clothed in a sheath divided into compartments decorated with flowers or heads of minor deities. The Calathos, a basket-shaped headdress filled with grains and fruits linked Jupiter with agricultural abundance. His right hand presents a whip, symbol of his authority and ability to command. His left shows a bunch of corn denoting his role as master of the crops. Popular amidst the legionaries, he was known as Iovi Optimo Maximo Heliopolitano, Jupiter the highest and greatest. His role as protector of the Empire, Emperor and the

IOVI OPTIMO MAXIMO HELIOPOLITANO (I.O.M.H.)legionaries is visible on the different altars dedicated to him and found all around the Roman Empire. As for his idol, it is said to be made out of wood and covered with golden plates. During special occasions, the idol was taken out of the Adyton, the holiest space of an eastern temple, for a procession in the great court.

The temple was famous for its oracles. One of the epithets of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was in fact Angelus or oracle god. Tradition says that people used to gather and inquire the deity about their future. They used to write their questions on a piece of paper and insert it in special holes carved at the base of the gods’ many statues. Emperor Trajan is known to have consulted the oracle of Baalbeck, inquiring whether he would return alive from his campaigns against the Parthians. In reply, the god provided him with a centurion wand cut into pieces and set in a purple shroud. Eventually, Trajan met his death in that war and only his remains returned to Rome.

The Triad of Heliopolis

The triad of Heliopolis, i.e. Jupiter, Juno and Mercury, was very popular in the Roman Empire. The great god Jupiter was in fact worshiped alongside his wife Juno and their son Mercury. The cult flourished in the Empire particularly around Syrian garrisons or where merchants of Beirut had set up commercial liaisons.

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I.O.M.H. - Latin inscription within the archaeological site


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Juno of HeliopolisLittle is known about the female goddess of Heliopolis who was assimilated with Juno, the wife of Jupiter under the Romans. Juno probably took over the significance and worship of the ancient Semitic fertility goddess Atargatis, whose cult might be linked with springs. She was depicted veiled and seated on a throne flanked by lions.

Mercury of HeliopolisAs it happened for Juno, one of the autochthonous deities of Baalbeck, whose name is unknown, was matched with Mercury by Romans. He was the protector of herds and shepherds.

The Archaeological Complex - Al QalaaThe complex of Baalbeck temples, also known as Al Qalaa or the Citadel, mainly consists of the great remains of the Jupiter Temple and Bacchus Temple. Not far from them, outside the present boundaries of the main archaeological site, is the circular structure known as the Temple of Venus. As for the Temple dedicated to Mercury, which used to be worshiped in the city as one of the deities of the Heliopolis triad, the scale and the greatness of the original architecture can now be witnessed only by the remains of the staircase on Sheikh Abdallah Hill.

The archaeological site is open daily from 8.30 to 16.00. The individual site entrance fee is L.L. 15,000 for foreigners, L.L. 10,000 for Lebanese and Arab foreigners and L.L. 5,000 for students. You can contact the site’s personnel dialling the following number: 08/370520.

Guides are available, upon request, at the entrance of the site. They will accompany visitors for around 1 hour. Rates vary with the size of the groups. The present rates are L.L. 30,000 for 1-6 people, L.L. 40,000 for 7-20 people, L.L. 45,000 for 20 persons and more. The guides are fluent in both French and English, alongside Arabic and expect an additional tip at the end of the tour.

How to get there: The archaeological complex or Al Qalaa is one of the main tourist attractions of Baalbeck. Clear directions may be found on the way. A big parking lot is also available: coming from Beirut, when you reach the entrance of the city, close to the Palmyra Hotel, turn left to enter the parking lot and proceed walking to the archaeological ruins.

41Jupiter Temple


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Propylaeum (entrance way)

Podium The overall complex stands on a 7.3 meters high podium built with massive stones, some of the largest stone blocks ever quarried. On the west side of the podium is the “Trilithon,” a celebrated group of three enormous stones weighing about 800 tons each, visible from the Jupiter Temple or from the back side of the present boundaries of the Archaeological complex. These stones are 20 meters long, 4.2 meters high and 3.6 meters wide. (Refer to point T on the map)

Built by Caracalla (211-217 A.D.) and completed in the mid-third century A.D., the Propylaeum (from Greek Propylea) is approached by a large semicircle of stone benches and a partially restored stairway. The entrance structure has towers at either end and is fronted by 12 Aswan red granite columns brought from Egypt. (N. 1 and N. 2 on the map)


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Propylaeum

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Hexagonal Forecourt The structure of the hexagonal forecourt is unique in the Roman world. It is the last monument added to the sanctuary in the first half of the 3rd century A.D by Emperor Philip the Arab (244-249) and connects the Propylaeum to the main courtyard.

The forecourt is decorated with four exedras each preceded by four columns and decorated inside with two rows of niches. Three doors lead from the Propylaeum to the Hexagonal Forecourt, where 30 granite columns originally supported the entablature. This six-sided form was built between the Propylaeum and the Great Court.

In 395 A.D., it was covered with a dome and transformed into a church by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius. Some sources state that it was taken to Jerusalem by the Umayyad in 689 A.D. and is now part of the famous Dome of the Rock. (N. 3 on the map)


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Hexagonal Forecourt

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Great Court Structurally, the Great Court is a platform built on the levelled-off top of the ancient Tell1 by Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.). The Tell was consolidated on the eastern, northern and southern sides by vaulted substructures and on the western side by the temple’s podium. These substructures supported the porticos and exedra around the Court and were used for stables and storage. The Great Court covered an area of 134 x 112 meters and contained the main installations of the cult. The entire Court was enclosed on three sides by a succession of twelve rectangular and semi-circular exedras, each preceded by a portico decorated by niches which contained statues. Inscriptions on some of the exedra explain how they were used: confraternities and communities took their sacred meals there, thus communing with the officiating priests. Surrounding the Court, in front of the exedras, was a colonnade made of 84 columns of Egyptian granite. The remains of medieval battlements, on the exterior walls of the court, can still be seen. (N. 4 on the map)

Altar & the Tower The small restored sacrificial altar and a tower measuring 7 meters high were built by Emperor Nero (54-68 A.D.) opposite the Temple of Jupiter. Only the lower levels of the tower remains. The massive altars are alien to Roman religious architecture: they are the trademark of the Semitic nature of the cult. The tower was probably built to allow the worshipers to view the proceedings from the top. It was also used by the priests to conduct the holokaustos (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστος hólos, “whole” and kaustós, “burnt”), or the total burning of the sacrificial victim. The small altar was for the manducation, namely the partial burning of the sacrificial victim. The rest of the sacrificial victims used to be shared and eaten by the pilgrims and the priests. (N. 5 on the map)

1- Tell is the Arabic name for a hill created by different civilizations living and rebuilding in the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound.


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The Great Court

The Great Altar

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Columns & the Ritual Pools The Great Court was flanked by two solitary columns of grey and red granite. Two pools for ritual washing, decorated with relief carvings, were placed north and south of both the altar and the Propylaeum tower.

Ritual Pool

These structures were destroyed when a Christian basilica was built on the site in 395 A.D. The columns symbolize the celestial power of the deity and sanctify the ground of the great court. (N. 6 on the map)


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Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus After passing through the forecourt and the Propylaeum, the Hexagonal Forecourt and Great Court, the worshiper arrived at last at the Temple of Jupiter. This approach to the sanctuary through a series of defined spaces was an apparent oriental adaptation. The axial layout emphasizes the idea of ascension towards the god. The Temple measures 88 x 48 meters and stands on a podium 13 meters above the surrounding terrain and 7 meters above the courtyard. It is reached by a monumental stairway. Originally surrounded by 54 external columns,

20 meters high and with a diameter of 2.25 meters; each column was formed of five pieces. Most of these now lie in fragments on the ground. The six standing columns are joined by an entablature decorated with a frieze of bull and lion heads connected by garlands. The six Corinthian columns give an idea of the vast scale of the original structure. The remains of the temple of Jupiter are spectacular with the 20 m high columns: make sure to take a picture while standing up next to the columns as it will remind you of the difference in scale. (N. 7 on the map)

Jupiter Temple

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The smaller temple next to the Jupiter complex is a separate building known as the Temple of Bacchus. Constructed during the first half of the 2nd century A.D., it is remarkably well preserved.

While the Great Temple was dedicated to the public cult of the Heliopolitan Triad, the smaller temple was apparently dedicated to a mysterious cult centred on Bacchus, as suggested by the decoration of its 13 meters high doorway: grapes and poppies are carved; Menades, Pans and Satyrs can be seen frolicking around the young Bacchus against a background

Temple of Bacchus of prolific vines. On the lintel, an eagle opens its wings between two genies and holds a wand in its claws. The walls are decorated with fluted columns and niches with assorted designs.

Thirty-three steps lead up to the entrance and the whole structure sits on a platform five meters high. The entrance through the monumental gate and the view of its ornate interior constitute one of the loveliest sights of Baalbeck. The stairs on either side of the doorway, lead to the roof, which may have had some ritual function. (N. 8 on the map)

51Bacchus Temple


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Baalbeck MuseumBaalbeck Museum is located in the substructions of the Sanctuary of Jupiter as well as in the south tower of the fortress. It was inaugurated in 1998 to commemorate the 100th

anniversary of Emperor William II visit to Baalbeck. The museum displays some 20 statues and objects, information about the Bronze age, the Hellenic and Roman era, as well as an exhibition of old photographs of the German ethnographer Herman Burckhardt, who captured interesting shots of the ruins and of the Turkmen and Bedouin tribes who lived in the area. The museum’s main value lies in the maps and photographs interpreting how and why the temples were built.

The museum is open daily from 10.30 to 17.00. It is located within the main Archaeological site. You can contact the Museum personnel dialling 08/370520.

In the late 19th century, Baalbeck began to attract travellers from Europe and around the region. These earliest visitors left their mark on the stone structures, particularly the Temple of Bacchus, by etching their name and date of visit. Many French, English and Arabic calligraphy, dating from the 19th century can thus be seen on the upper levels of the walls of the Bacchus temple. They bear witness to the level of sand that was within the temple before the archaeologists started working on the site in 1904.

Despite this testimony from the past, scratching cultural relics and monuments shall always be considered as vandalism and visitors should thus respectfully avoid this kind of practice.

Baalbeck ̛s Graffiti


53Baalbeck Museum

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Al Qalaa From the end of the 11th century, Baalbeck regained importance as a strategic base in the Crusader conflict and its earlier Arab fortification walls were strengthened. The Roman sanctuary was slowly transformed by the Seljuks and the Ayyubids into a citadel (Qalaa), giving the name “Al Qalaa” to the area.

The complex, badly damaged by earthquakes and partly destructed during the Mongol invasion, was rebuilt by the Mamluks at the end of the 13th century. Modifications and alteration in the architectural structures were made: the stairs of the propyleum were destroyed and a walled up area was constructed between the Bacchus temple and the podium of the great court and the Jupiter temple. Towers, a Mosque and a water basin were also built. The

Mosque was named the Mosque of Ibrahim, after the Prophet Ibrahim al Khalil.

A patrol path was added on the top of the sanctuary walls. An inscription, found within the citadel, mentions the construction of a wall in 1168 A.D. Extensive building activities took place under the Ayyubids. Two towers and a palace were added by Al Amjad Bahramshah. The citadel was damaged by the Mongols in 1258 A.D. Mamluk governors of the city restored it and added a massive tower to the south east in 1282. The surrounding area could be viewed from the top of this tower. The tower houses constitute a small museum displaying an interesting collection of artefacts from Baalbeck and its surroundings. (Refer to N. 9 and N. 10 on the map)

Al Qalaa

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Temple of Venus Beit Nassif and Bustan al KhanThe Round Temple or the so-called Temple of Venus, located southeast of the Acropolis, was built by Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.). It was built during the third century A.D. 150m east of the Bacchus temple. Its design and size, as well as its orientation towards the Great Temple set it apart from the other Baalbeck temples. These attributes also help identify it as the temple of the Fortune of Baalbeck, the protector divinity of the City. It was not by accident that the temple was converted into a church during the Byzantine period. The Church was dedicated to Saint Barbara, who is the patron saint of Baalbeck to this day. (N. 11 on the map)

This charming 19th century house, currently under restoration, was built over the southern Roman gate of the city. Beit Nassif named after a 19th century wealthy Baalbaki (person from Baalbeck) who owned the house and the land all around, is going to be a visitor centre and the new entrance of the Archaeological site. It is surrounded by the remains of the Roman assembly hall and the gigantic Roman baths, site known as Bustan al Khan.

The following Temples and Monuments are located outside the present boundaries of the Archaeological site locally known as Al Qalaa and they can be admired from the main entrance of the site.


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Beit Nassif

Venus Temple - detail of the decoration

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Near the Temple of Venus are the remains of the Temple of the Muses (the Greek goddesses who presides over the arts and sciences) dating back to the beginning of the 1st century A.D. (N. 12 on the map)

Temple of the Muses Al Barbara Mosque is a small mosque near the Temple of Venus dedicated to the famous Saint Barbara. The Mosque is also called the Mosque of the goldsmiths since it is located in the goldsmiths’ street. The minaret was built during the reign of King Al Saleh Ismail al Ayyubi in 1240 A.D.

Al Barbara Mosque

59Temple of the Muses


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The Umayyad Mosque or the great Friday MosqueIn front of the main archaeological site entrance, not far from Venus Temple, the Umayyad Mosque dates from the 7th and 8th centuries of the Umayyad period. Built on what was the site of the Roman forum and later a Byzantine Church dedicated to St. John, the Mosque reuses granite and limestone columns taken from the Roman Sanctuary. The plan has the basic features of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The monument looks like a giant rectangle measuring

47x61 meters. There is a square minaret in the north-west corner of the courtyard. Three inscriptions on its walls bear witness to works conducted during the reign of the Zengids and Ayyubids and of the restoration works carried out during the Mamluk period. The Mosque was recently restored.

How to get there: follow the street straight from the Temples exit to get to the Umayyad Mosque main gate.

Umayyad Mosque


6161Umayyad Mosque interior


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The Christian neighbourhood Built during the second half of the 19th century, the Christian neighbourhood is characterized by traditional Lebanese houses with red tiled roofs and three-arched façades. The three historical churches of the city can be visited in this area. Saint Takla and Barbara Church, built in 1897 with stones taken from the nearby ruins of the temple of Mercury, is a Melkite Church dedicated to Barbara, the patron saint of Baalbeck.

The Orthodox Church of Saint Georges was built in the 19th century and has an interesting collection of old icons.

Saint Mary - Al Sayydeh Maronite Church was also built in the 19th century and has been recently restored.

How to get there: Go right after the Temples exit then turn left walking till Khalil Mutran Square, cross Hajjar Street and you reach the Christian Neighbourhood and the three churches.

Al Hanabila MosqueAl Hanabila is located next to the city market in Ghafara Street. Sultan Al Mansur Qalawun restored it in 1283 A.D.

The River Mosque (Al Imam al Mahdi Mosque) The River Mosque was built in 1618 A.D. by the Harfush family who ruled Baalbeck during the 17th century under the Ottomans. It is located in the city centre and was restored in 1918. It is known as the River Mosque because it is situated next to the city’s spring. It is known today as Al Imam al Mahdi Mosque.

How to get there: walk south of the Venus Temple following Ras al-Ayn Blvd and you’ll find the Mosque on your left.

63Church of Saint Mary


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Temple of MercuryIt is hard to imagine that a great temple, as big as the temple of Bacchus, stood on top of the Sheikh ‘Abdallah hill. Unfortunately, all that remains of the temple of Mercury are presently rock-cut steps eleven meters in width and rising to the height of 33 meters. The temple was very famous in ancient times as it appears on Roman coins, built on a rocky elevation and surrounded by a rectangular peribolus (wall). It was dedicated to the tutelary god of the city, assimilated with Mercury under the Romans.

Mercury of Heliopolis is represented flanked by rams; he was a pastoral god, protector of cattle and sheep. Although only the vestiges of the stairs remain, the site is nevertheless worth a visit for the beautiful views of Baalbeck city, the nearby Zawiya-Mosque and the Tomb of Sheikh ‘Abdallah al-Younini deserve to be seen.

Qubbat al-Amjad This monument is the oldest Islamic Mausoleum of the city. It was built in 1200 A.D. on the top of Sheikh Abdallah’s hill by Al Malik al-Amjad Bahramshah. It is a square on top of which rests a dome, thus the name qubbat, dome. It rapidly became a popular pilgrimage site due to its proximity to Zawiyat al-Yunini, the burial place of the famous Sheikh Abdallah al-Yunini. The Qubbat al-Amjad is part of the Lebanese army barracks in Baalbeck and presently it can be seen only from afar.

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Steps to the temple of Mercury


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Sheikh Abdallah Hill and Zawiyat al Yunini MosqueSheikh Abdallah Hill gives the visitor the best panoramic view of the city of Baalbeck alongside the fertile Bekaa valley. The view is breathtaking and the amazing landscape offers the visitor the proof of the importance of the city since ancient times. On Sheikh Abdallah Hill are the remains of the Zawiya-Mosque and Tomb of Sheikh ‘Abdallah al-Younini, built under the reign of Al-Amjad. The tomb of Sheikh Abdallah gives the name to the hill.

How to get there: The access route to Sheikh Abdallah Hill is close to the Christian neighbourhood. Proceed to the south and take the second street on your left (before reaching Khalil Mutran House), then turn right and follow the pedestrian road climbing up to the hill.

Ras al-Imam al-Hussein MosqueAccording to locals, Ras al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque was built to honour the place where the head of Imam Hussein, killed in Karbala in 680 A.D., was exposed. It is said that his captured family and his head were moved around the major cities of Syria by the Umayyads to humiliate them. The ruins of the building can be dated back to 681 A.D. Some sources state that the Mosque was built by the Dawadar (secretary) Balaban al-Rumi. Another source mentions restoration works conducted in 1277 A.D. under the Mamluk Sultan Baybars. The Mosque is a popular pilgrimage site for the Shiites.

How to get there: follow Ras al-Ayn Blvd and you’ll reach Ras al-Imam al-Hussein mosque.

67Ras al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque


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Ras al-Ayn springThis ancient spring, now a part of modern Baalbeck, has been a source of water since antiquity. Here are traces of a Roman canalization system and a Nympheum (temple dedicated to the nymphs, minor deities protecting springs), as well as a Mamluk mosque. The remains of these vestiges are still visible today in Ras al-Ayn and the ancient stones are scattered around the spring.

Along the water canalization system are long sided parks with beautiful trees and green fields. Traditionally, Baalbeck people come to this area to have some rest, drink a cup of coffee or tea, have lunch in the open air and enjoy smoking a nargileh. Several hotels, restaurants and coffee shops are built in this area and cooperate to make your visit to Baalbeck more pleasant.


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Ras al-Ain Spring

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Architectural evolutions in Baalbeck: constructions during the Ottoman period and traditional architecture in Baalbeck

During the Ottoman period, the houses were similar to typical Arab bourgeois households. The centre of the house consisted almost always in a square courtyard with a bahra, a water fountain made of stone. Next to the courtyard were the living rooms with benches, called mastaba in Baalbeck, that were around 30-40 cm high and often built into the covered iwan; after these came the proper domestic rooms. The entrance was often on a corner to hide the women’s area, the harem, which means in fact forbidden, excluded; it led to the centre of the house, the courtyard. The open uncovered courtyards presents most of the time limestone pavements. The mastaba are framed with stones and covered with a clay floor. Carpets and mats were placed upon these benches for relaxing. The mastabas could be transformed into iwan by a simple covering with open arcades or a clay roof on wooden columns. The front of the iwan is often structured by three arcades. Iwans are absent in smaller houses, while larger houses have a summer iwan on the northern side and a winter iwan to the south. Many ovens, called tannour, were found in the ancient settlements and are similar to those still in use in Baalbeck. As for the building techniques, most walls are made of very primitive masonry. The poorer houses are made of sun-dried earth or clay-mortar bricks whereas wealthier houses displayed lime mortar and finished stones.

Until the middle of the 19th century the building style was rural, characterized by isolated one-storied houses. The houses in the Bekaa widely attested the type of the closed rectangular house. They were built mainly of rubble stones, plastered with clay, and the walls were partly whitewashed. The flat clay roofs were made with beams of local wood.

The wood of nut trees and especially of juniper was used as construction material. All houses had a central courtyard that enabled the access to

71Interior of an Ottoman house


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those rooms that were not interconnected. However, these houses had the same furnishing as traditional Arab houses with the lowered entrance area behind the doors, atabe and arches niches for the storage of beddings or other household effects, named youk. Even the traditional bahra, the stone basin of the fountain in the courtyard, is part of the inventory.

The first changes in the buildings surrounding the Sheikh Abdallah Hill can be dated around 1880, which marks the beginning of the flourishing of the Christian quarter and the building activities around the turn of the century. First iwan houses with a standardized ground plan appeared at the foot of the remains of the monumental stairways of the ancient Temple of Mercury. The houses in this area are set parallel to the hill’s slope and have three rooms, the central iwan flanked by two lateral rooms and sometimes a third room to the back. The houses are built of rubble stone with flat clay roofs, but in contrast to the earlier houses, almost all of them have doors and windows spanned by segmented arches to the front, which are built of worked blocks. This type of houses appeared in Baalbeck only in the second half of the 19th century.

During the late 1800s, a new wave of construction emerged in Baalbeck and new building techniques were introduced. The buildings are now communicating with the surrounding landscape, with open façades, balconies and terraces. The typical niches disappear, showing a change in the taste for furniture and lifestyle. Instead of sleeping mattresses spread on the floor at night, special bedrooms with beds were introduced. Similar villas can be found in the direction of Ras al-Ayn. The presence of this type of building in this area denotes certain continuity in the attractiveness of specific living areas in Baalbeck, which was in fact the same area where the wealthy villae suburbanae were located in the Roman period.


7373Detail of the façade of Khalil Mutran house


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The transformation of Baalbeck following western models is also visible in the abandonment of the old souk and in the newly built shopping streets with modern multi-storied buildings from the French mandate period. Nevertheless, Baalbeck keeps traces of the different traditions and cultures which influenced the city.

A much more traditional picture of an Arab quarter can in fact still be found in Hayy al-Solh quarter, in the northeast area of the city, where the Ain Juj aqueduct enters the city. The Al-Solh is one of the largest Sunni families in Lebanon and the architecture in their neighbourhood is characterized by agglomerating types of courtyard houses, which apparently grew rampant until they formed a densely built area. The houses are simple, built of stone rubble, plastered with clay and with flat clay roofs. Groups of houses were added one to the other, resulting in an intricately woven settlement pattern. Some of the buildings located in this area may truly be considered as the “traditional Museums of Baalbeck city”: their architectural style as well as the internal furnishing showcase traditional clothes and garments, furniture, tools and many objects related to the intangible cultural heritage of Baalbeck. Among all, the House of Assaad Haidar, close to Baalbeck Serail, the House of Abdel Ghani Al Rifai, close to Nasser Square, the House of Nakhle Moutran, which is now the Husseiniye, i.e. a Shiite social and religious centre, and the House of the former Deputy Ibrahim Haidar certainly deem to be mentioned.

How to get there: Walk up the Hajjar Street straight to the Serail Square, then go up to Hay-Solh.

75House from Hayy al-Solh quarter


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Qubbat Al-Sa’idaynNot far from the City Gate, Qubbat Al-Sa’idayn (or cupola of the two blessed men) is a two-room mausoleum built in 1409 A.D. by Mamluk Sultan Malik al-Mu’ayyad Sheikh. It was conceived to commemorate two of his officers killed in a battle near Baalbeck. Its main entrance has traditional Mamluk decoration patterns.

Roman and Ayyubid wallsAs any other Roman city, Baalbeck was surrounded by defensive walls. Their remains are still visible along the city gates. The Ayyubids used them when they rebuilt the city walls during the medieval period.

Qubbat Al-Sa’idayn


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Gouraud BarracksBuilt partly on the Roman defence walls to house the French soldiers stationed in Baalbeck during the French mandate, the Gouraud Barracks were named after General Henri Gouraud, the first French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon (1920-23).

How to get there: Walk out of the temples, turn left then go straight all over the way to get to the Gouraud Barracks, Roman and Ayyubid walls and Qubbat al-Sa’idayn.

Gouraud Barracks

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Al Sayyida Khawla ShrineAfter the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D., the women and descendants of al-Imam Hussein were taken to Damascus as prisoners of war; the convoy passed by Baalbeck. Khawla, the daughter of al-Imam Hussein (grand-daughter of the Prophet) was only three years old and did not survive the journey. She died in Baalbeck and was buried in the Shrine that stands now at the entrance of the city.

The Tomb is visited by pilgrims coming from all over the world. The

date of its building is unknown. The tree that was used to shade the tomb is preserved inside the shrine that was recently restored and the old small vaulted room of the building was covered by a gilded dome, in addition to two minarets.

It is a pilgrimage site for people from different Lebanese regions and visitors from Arab and Islamic countries.

How to get there: Coming from Beirut, it is located on your left at the southern entrance of Baalbeck.

Al Sayyida Khawla Shrine

79Interior of Al Sayyida Khawla Shrine


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Roman quarries The proximity of the two quarries, one to the south the other to the north of the city, provided the stones for the construction of the Roman Temples. Only the southern quarry is open to the public and can be visited.

In the past, workers would dig out trenches around the limestone blocks big enough to allow men to work. The blocks were detached by inserting wooden beans between the block and the bed rock. The wood was regularly watered; while gaining in volume they would push the block away.

The quarried stone was pulled away to the construction site on round wooden beans by shear man power. One of the largest stones ever quarried, known as “the pregnant woman stone”, can be seen in the southern quarry.

It measures 21.5 meters in length, 4 meters in height and 5 meters in depth. It forms a cleanly cut block of some 433 cubic meters and weighs not less than 1000 tons. It would take more than 40.000 men to move it!

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The Pregnant Woman Stone


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Shrine of Saint Elias Qubbat DourisThe shrine of Saint Elias is located in the southwest of the city, between the Christian cemeteries. Christians and Muslims visit and worship it. It seems that also non-Christians were buried in the Tomb in the middle of the shrine.

How to get there: turn right at the southern entrance of Baalbeck, not far from Al Sayyida Khawla Shrine. You will see the Roman Quarry and the pregnant woman stone when looking straight ahead. The Shrine of Saint Elias is close by.

At the southern entrance of the town is the site of an octagonal structure composed of eight Roman granite columns. Built during the 13th century, it was originally covered with a cupola and held an Ayyubid tomb. An inscription, dating back to 1243 A.D., refers to it as a blessed space near a cemetery.

How to get there: Qubbat Douris is located on your left on the main road from Beirut: while reaching the southern entrance of the city you will see Qubbat Douris on your left.

Shrine of Saint Elias

83Qubbat Douris


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Old Railroad Station In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire witnessed a period of modernization. Railways were built to connect the cities of the Empire. The railway station in Baalbeck was on the trail connecting Damascus, Homs and Palmyra. The station, not in use anymore, is a nostalgic 19th century picture of the Orient, and indicates

the strategic and historical importance of Baalbeck as a crossroads between Lebanon and Syria.

How to get there: Coming from Beirut, the old railroad station is located on your left. Turn left near the gas station and follow the road leading to the railway station.

85Old Railroad Station


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Baalbeck gave birth to many important religious and literary figures. Many of them played major roles in their specific fields. They are presented with a biographical note and a brief description of their activities in this section.

Imam Al Awza’i, Abu ‘Amr ‘Abd al Rahman bin ‘Amr | Religious dignitary

Kusta bin Luka al-Baalbaki | Physician, astronomer and translator

His name is derived from al-Awza’i, a suburb of Damascus. Imam Al Awza’i was born in Baalbeck in 707 A.D. and was famous for his tolerance and for taking the defence of the peasants of Mount Lebanon, severely crushed after their uprising against the Abbasid Caliph. Imam Al Awza’i was also a famous reformist but his disciples never

Born in Baalbeck in 820 A.D., Kusta bin Luka, a Christian Greek Orthodox, was fluent in Greek, Syrian and Arabic. He spent the last part of his life in Armenia where he died in 912 A.D. He visited many cities of the Byzantine Empire and returned with Hellenic texts which he translated into Arabic. Known to be skilled in medicine, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music, his works include several treaties

collected his teachings in a published book. He established an independent doctrine that was adopted for a short period by the jurists of the Levant and Andalusia. The faculty of Imam al Awza’i for Islamic Studies was founded in Beirut to commemorate him. The faculty grants bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. He died in Beirut in 774 A.D.

on philosophy and logic; astronomy, the celestial sphere, algebra. He translated the works of Euclid, Diaphantos (the so-called “father of algebra”), Theodosios, Autolykos (astronomer and mathematician), Aristarchos and Hero. The Difference between the Spirit and the Soul, translated to Latin by Joannes Hispalensis under the title De Differentia Spiritus et Animae, was one of his writings.

Famous peop le f rom

Baalbeck

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Al Maqrizi | Religious figure

Taqi al-Din Ahmad bin ‘Ali bin ‘Abd al-Qadir bin Muhammad, was born in Baalbeck between 1364 and 1367 A.D. and was known as Al Maqrizi after a suburb in Baalbeck called Al Maqariza. He spent most of his life in Egypt working in the government and becoming inspector of markets for Cairo and Northern Egypt in 1399 A.D. Most of his activity as a writer was dedicated to the Mamluk period. His works were also translated into European languages: the French Etienne Marc Quatremère, translated part of the most important of his books, Al suluk li ma’rifat duwal al-muluk, making the history of Mamluk period in Egypt available also to non Arabic readers. E. Blochet proceeded with this work and published a book titled Histoire d’Égypte de Makrizi. Al suluk li ma’rifat duwal al-muluk

was considered as the first reference book for the history of that period. Among his writings are ‘Akd jawahir al-asfat men akhbar madinat al-fastat (regarding the history of Egypt), Etti’az al-hanfa bi akhbar al-khalfa, which treats the history of Egypt under the Fatimid, and Ighathat al-Umma bi kashf al-ghamma, narrating the history of famine in Egypt and its causes2. His work Al-Mawa’iz wa al’i’tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-athar in two volumes, was translated to French by Urbain Bouriant as Description topographique et historique de l’Égypte. An extract of Al Maqrizi’s History of the Fatimids was also included and published by J.G.L. Kosegarten in his work Chrestomathia.

2- For the listed writings there is no official translation available: it was decided to keep the original title in order to avoid inaccurate interpretations

Adib, Musafir al-Hakkari, Sheikh 'Adi | A Sufi leader

Born in Baalbeck in 1075 A.D, Sheikh ‘Adi travelled extensively and reached Bosra, settling finally in Lalesh, near Mosul, where he died in 1162 A.D.

Lalesh became the most important and holy centre of the Yazidis, a

Kurdish ethno-religious group and Sheikh ‘Adi’s main followers.

The Yazidis set their spiritual council in Lalesh and visit the city at least once in their lifetime on a 6 days pilgrimage, hajj, to Sheikh ‘Adi’s tomb.

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Baalbek • Culture

3- For some of the mentioned writings and books there is no official translation available: it was decided to keep the original title in order to avoid inaccurate interpretations. In some cases, the general topic treated is provided to give an insight on the extensive knowledge of Sheikh Al Baha’i.

Sheikh Al Baha’i Al ‘Amili | Religious figure

Sheikh Muhammad bin al Sheikh Hussein bin Abdel Samad, known as Sheikh Al Baha’I was born in Baalbeck in 1546 A.D. He received his primary religious studies in Lebanon but left afterward to Isfahan, where he deepened his knowledge. He obtained an honoured place at the court of Shah ‘Abbas Al Safawi, who appointed him Sheikh al-Islam of the Safavid Empire. He travelled for around 30 years visiting Holy places and pursuing religious studies. He wrote extensively about religion, literature and linguistics as well as about scientific topics. Among his religious books, the most relevant are Al-zubda fi al-ussul (related to the essence of religious rules), Sharh al-arba’in hadithan (Explanation of the 40 hadith) and Hadaya al-Umma ila ahkam al-a’imma (Guide the nation towards the imams’ preachings).

Asrar al-balagha (i.e. The secret of rhetoric), Al- tahzib fi al-nahou (i.e. Grammar correction), Tahzib al-bayan (i.e. Correction of the style) are some of the titles of his books on literature and linguistics. His writings concern mathematics (Bahr al-hissab and Khulassat al-hissab), astronomy (Tashrih al-aflak fi al-hay’a and Risala fi hall eshkalayt ‘otared wal- kamar) and topography (Risala fi tadaris al-ard). Sheikh Al Baha’i Al ‘Amili died in Isfahan in 1625 A.D. He was buried next to Imam ‘Ali Rida’s Tomb. While visiting the mausoleum of Imam Rida, pilgrims pray at his tomb reading al fatiha, the opening sura of the Holy Qur’an.3

Sheikh Habib al Ibrahim al Muhajer | Fakih (Islamic jurist)

Born in Jabal ‘Amel in 1304 A.D, Sheikh Habib al Ibrahim al Muhajer was a Fakih and a reformist whose efforts concentrated on reviving Baalbeck and its region. He established several schools and founded the magazine Al Hoda.

Author of The Memory of Hussein (4 voll.), The Facts in the Similarities and the Differences, Islam in the Knowledge and Arts, he died in Baalbeck in 1384 A.D.

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Khalil Mutran


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Khalil Mutran | Poet and journalist

Born in 1872 A.D. in Baalbeck, Khalil Mutran received his education at the Patriarchal College of Beirut. His mentors in Arabic language were Ibrahim and Khalil al-Yazigi, from whom he gained his mastery of the language and his concern for perfection.

He transferred to Paris where he discovered French Romanticism and was deeply influenced by the works of Victor Hugo and other European writers. He then left to Egypt in 1892 where he worked as editor of the newspaper Al Ahram. In 1900 he founded Al-Majalla al-Misriyya (The Egyptian Review) and in 1903 he launched the newspaper Al Jawa’ib al-Misriyya, which lasted for 4 years.

Mutran was known as one of the pioneers of Harakat al-tajdid or the renewal movement, and a precursor in the writing of poetry and prose. Mutran did not only renovate modern Arabic poetry, he also modernized prose writing. He influenced many

poets of his generation such as Ibrahim Naji, Abu Shadi and other Lebanese diaspora poets. He was known as Sha’ir al-Kutrayn or the poet of two countries, Egypt and Lebanon. After the death of Ibrahim Hafez and Ahmad Shawki, he inherited the role of Sha’ir al-aktar al-‘arabiya or the Poet of Arab Countries.

He published his poems under the title Diwan Khalil, a work of four volumes and translated, among others, many of the works of Victor Hugo and Shakespeare.

His poems include: The evening, A dear death, The weeping lion, Loyalty, The fetal martyr, Suicidal, The visible baby, Nero, The girl of the black mountain, The sheikh of Athens, Between the heart and tears, Lily and many other famous poems.

Disabled by attacks of arthritis, Khalil Mutran succumbed to the disease and died in 1949.

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Michel Alouf


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Michel Alouf | The first Lebanese guide to the Temples

Michel Alouf is a native of Baalbeck. He became the custodian of the Baalbeck temples and served as guide to the Imperial couple during the visit of the German Emperor William II to the city. He seems to have greatly impressed his guests and as a result, the active German consul General , Dr. Schröder, informed him in 1905 that his Imperial Majesty had bestowed on him the Order of the Prussian Eagle, 4th class. Remarkably, in 1934, Michel Alouf received from the then exiled Emperor a photograph of himself, expressing his gratitude for the faithful devotion of the keeper of the Baalbeck temples.

He bought Hotel Palmyra, probably the oldest hotel in Lebanon, from Perikli Mimikaki. He received major figures during their visit to the ruins of Baalbeck. Among them were Charles de Gaulle, Frederick Charles of Prussia, Louis Napoleon, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Philip Duke of Orleans, His Majesty King Milan of Serbia and many others. He wrote in 1890 History of Baalbeck, probably one of the earliest guidebooks to the site. He died in 1946.

In 1988, due to financial difficulties occurred after the Lebanese civil war, Michel Alouf’s son sold Hotel Palmyra to the Husseini family.

Abdel Halim Caracalla | Choreographer and founder of Caracalla Dance Theatre

Considering his activit ies in promoting dance, dabkeh and dancing performance, more details

on Abdel Halim Caracalla from Baalbeck can be found in the Dabkeh session of this Guidebook.

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Baalbeck gave birth also to some important religious figures, who belong to the city’s different confessions. We mention the most important.

Saint Barbara Barbara was the daughter of Dioscorus, a wealthy trader and a distinguished city council member. She was born under the reign of Emperor Maximianus (285-305 A.D). She converted to Christianity under the influence of her slaves. Her father discovered her secret conversion and ordered to imprison her in a tower with two windows. She is said to have carved out a third one, as a symbol of the Christian Holy Trinity. Seeing that, the father decided to burn her alive in the tower, but her friends managed to free Barbara dressing her in peasant clothes. So dressed, she was hiding in the Bekaa when a farmer recognized her from her “smooth hands” and her

golden bracelets and caught her. He delivered her to her father who publicly had her executed.

Saint Barbara is the Patron Saint of Baalbeck and her cult and festival, celebrated each year on the night of the 4th of December, are very popular in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. It is an occasion for children to take the streets, wear masks and go “trick or treating” while singing traditional rhymes. Saint Barbara’s martyrdom commemoration has also its special food: Katayef bel ashta or special dough stuffed with cream and walnuts and boiled wheat served with sugar and nuts.

Myst ics and sa in ts f rom

Baalbeck


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Sheikh Abdallah al-YuniniBorn around 1140 in Yunin, a village Northeast of Baalbeck, Sheikh Abdallah was a renowned ascetic. He is said to have frequently avoided people, spending a good deal of his time in the mountains of Lebanon and the Damascus Ghouta in seclusion. He built a small oratory at Ras al-Ayn where people used to gather to see him.

Local stories relate how a Christian woman from Jubbet el-Mnaytra came to him with all of her possessions after having seen the Virgin Mary in a dream. She was told that she should enter his service until her death, when she exclaimed that he

was a Muslim, the Virgin replied : “True, he is a Muslim but he has a Christian heart”. She stayed in his service for eight months. When she fell ill, she asked to die a Christian. The sheikh wanted her last wishes to be respected and asked for a priest to be sent to her so that she had a proper Christian funeral.

Sheikh Abdallah died in 1220 A.D.: his humble mausoleum is still a popular pilgrimage site. To honour his memory, the people of Baalbeck named the hill where he was buried the Sheikh Abdallah Hill.

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Baalbeck was also visited by great leaders, scholars and writers. Some of them visited the city during their tour of the region; others came and stayed for a considerable period. We are listing the most notable names. Some of the following names (listed in chronological order) may be found in the visitors’ book of Palmyra Hotel, which gives evidence to the remarkable number of famous guests who visited Baalbeck from 1892 onwards, pictures autographs, as well as letters and drawings from Jean Cocteau are displayed at the hotel and are definitely worth to be seen.

Famous peop le in

Baalbeck

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Philip II, Duke of Orleans (1674 – 1723): Member of the Royal Family of France, he served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723.

Robert Wood (1717 – 1771): British traveller, antique scholar and politician, he travelled in the Levant region and, in 1757 , he produced drawings of the site of Baalbeck in his The Ruins of Baalbeck.

Constantin- François Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney (1757 – 1820): a French philosopher, historian, orientalist and politician. He wrote an account for his travels entitled Voyages en Syrie.

Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 – 1839): She is remembered by history as a British intrepid traveller in an age when women were discouraged from being adventurous.

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790 – 1869) : French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental to the foundation of the French Second Republic.

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808 – 1873): The President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire.

Frederick Charles of Prussia (1828 – 1885): Prussian officer, known for his skills in combat. He was surnamed “The Red Prince”.

King Milan I of Serbia (1854 – 1901): Serbian monarch, he reigned as Prince Milan IV of Serbia from 1868 to 1882 and King Milan I of Serbia from 1882 to 1889.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950): Famous Irish playwrighter and co-founder of the London School of Economics, he is the only person who was awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature for his contributions to literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play with the same name).

Emperor William II (1859 – 1941): The last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, he ruled the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 1888 to 1918.


9999Emperor William II


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Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863 – 1914): Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and, from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination with his spouse on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo triggered off World War I.

Maxime Weygand (1867 – 1965): French military commander in World War I and World War II, he served as France’s High Commissioner during the French Mandate over Lebanon.

Gertrude Bell (1868 – 1926): English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.

Muhammad Kurd Ali (1876 – 1953): Notable Syrian scholar, historian and literary critic in the Arabic language.

He founded and directed the Academy of the Arabic language in Damascus from 1919 until his death.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 – 1938): Ottoman army officer, he is the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey.

King Faisal I of Iraq (1885 – 1933): Member of the Hashemite dynasty, he was king of the Arab kingdom of Syria in 1920 and King of the kingdom of Iraq from 1921 to 1933.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963): Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker.

Charles de Gaulle (1890 – 1970): The French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.


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Baalbeck • Traditions


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Baalbeck Traditions

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Festivalsand special events


Baalbeck tourism and shopping Festival is organized yearly for fifteen days between June and July in Baalbeck by the Syndicate of the Bekaa shop owners. It aims at developing tourism and trade in the city and the region.

The Festival consists of an exposition held in a 6000 m2 space at Ras al-Ayn and comprises more than 200 wings. Sales, gifts and tombola games are part of the festival. Major trade and agricultural companies, alongside local and international organizations,

sports clubs and boy scouts, take part in the festival. The program includes ecological, cultural, and artistic and sports activities as well as expositions, like the Resistance exposition and the hand crafts art exposition.

The Lebanese agricultural exposition is also held within the fifteen days of the festival. Foreign Embassies and local companies participate in this event. It aims at introducing the farmer to all new technologies available and to connect them to the major agronomic companies.


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The Sport festival is one of the major aspects of the festival: it consists mainly of an international marathon and other activities such as athletics, ping pong, and badminton. The main event of the sport festival is the international racing. Three races are programmed: the 12 km race for professional athletes, 5 km for the beginners and 1.5 km for children. The festival is held in Ras al-Ayn Park.

Furthermore, a mass wedding worth to be seen is celebrated at

the conclusion of the Festival. The Syndicate of Bekaa Shop Owners organizes the Baalbeck mass wedding every year, taking care of every detail: the location, the hotels, and the food. Thousands take part in this event under the patronage of the local authorities. The mass wedding starts with a photo session within the Roman Temples. Then the couples head to Ras al-Ayn Park where folk songs and dances await them. Every couple receives a monetary gift by the Syndicate which also takes the financial charge of the event.


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The Solh family weddingsThe weddings celebrated in the Solh neighbourhood in Baalbeck have preserved their traditional aspect throughout centuries. These weddings last for three days and are organized as follows:

The first day consists in two separate celebrations: one for the groom and the other for the bride. The groom visits the bride’s house, gives her the henna and she does the same. Then they proceed separately each one in his/her house to celebrate dancing and eating food prepared by the women of the family while drinking bitter coffee till the following morning. The day ends when the groom is “kidnapped” by his friends or siblings. He is taken to his house where he is given the traditional wedding bath. He is dressed in his wedding suit, ready for the next day.

During the second day the groom, his family and friends tour the city on horses. This is an ancient tradition that aims to show the groom’s talent in horse riding and his bravery.

The third day, the last day, the groom takes his bride on his horse before sunset and they head together to the place where the wedding will be celebrated. They enter the house on the rhythms of traditional wedding songs and dances and namely with the “Zaffeh,” the traditional group dance. They are surrounded by circles of relatives and friends dancing the Baalbaki Dabkeh. The couple leaves the crowd at eleven and the invitees are left to enjoy the feast till morning.

Mass Wedding


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Also known as the “Procession of grief”, the exiled convoy is a special memorial service within the 40 days of commemoration for the assassination of Imam Hussein. It is held in Ras al-Ayn Park. Baalbeck was selected as the central point of the celebration since it is one of many stations of the exiled convoy journey from Karbala to Damascus.

The exiled convoyThe celebration is held in the place where the head of Imam Hussein was exposed. People from neighbouring villages come to Baalbeck to take part in this memorial. They walk to the city in honour of the exiled convoy. The memorial service consists of a play showing a station of the exile followed by a mourning circle.

40 days after remembering the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in ‘Ashura, tens of thousands of pilgrims take part in a march to Ras al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque in Ras al-Ayn. The day starts with a

The 40 days memorial for Imam Husseingathering for prayer in the Shrine of Sayyida Khawla. The crowd, named “the procession of grief”, goes to Ras al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque to pray and to listen to the reading of the biography of Imam Hussein.

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of that same year the play was performed in Baalbeck by a group of Lebanese and French actors in front of nearly four hundred spectators. The anti-aircraft lights of the French Air Force provided the lighting.

Almost twenty years of cultural inact iv ity fol lowed this sole performance in Baalbeck. In the fall of 1944, L’association nationale pour le maintien et le développement de la culture libanaise presented in Baalbeck, under the patronage of the President of the Lebanese Republic, Bechara al-Khoury, Les Perses d’après la tragédie d’Eschyle. The production team was Lebanese while the French provided technical support. The festivities were opened with the singing of a Greek poem and two classical dances were also performed.

Baalbeck, among other areas, was annexed to Mount Lebanon in September 1920 to create Greater Lebanon. The French mandate was established in Lebanon during that same year. By 1922, French cultural and artistic influence could already be depicted in many aspects. In fact, during a summer night of that same year, a group of French military officers, their friends and family decided to take a tour of Lebanon and found themselves at dusk in Baalbeck. The first French High Commissioner for Syria and Lebanon, General Henri Gouraud, was among the members of the group. Inspired by their colossal surroundings, the group spent their evening reciting French poems and decided to stage a play based on a Lebanese myth. A French journalist wrote the script and in the autumn

How it all began

Baalbeck International Festival


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forever/finally anchored to Lebanese and Near Eastern life. Years of effort and promise and initiatives are harvested today in a rich program spread out over five weeks on this plentiful Bekaa plain to restore to its cultural glow which was promised to it two thousand years ago by the builders and great priests.”

By 1962, the Festival had acquired a major role in Lebanon’s tourist activities becoming as President Chamoun stated a “…mirror with two faces: one on World culture and the other on Lebanese heritage and the legacy of its ancestors”.

In 1966, the Lebanese government recognized the Baalbeck International Festival by issuing a set of six stamps honouring the event.

The Baalbeck Festival

Ten years later, in 1955, President Camille Chamoun proposed to turn these periodic performances into an organized annual event in Baalbeck: a committee (“les dames du festival”) was formed with the task to organize the festival including in the program French and English theatre pieces, as well as a German symphony orchestra.

The commitment to culture therefore proceeded and supported the picture of Baalbeck as a cultural city. In 1956, Jean Cocteau presented in person his play The Infernal Machine.

By that time, the festival had established the ruins of Baalbeck as a symbol of modern Lebanon. The President of the Festival’s Committee Ms. Aimée Kettaneh states in the official program of the 1960 season: “the International Baalbeck Festival is

Baalbeck International Festival

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Baalbeck and its festival were now part of Lebanon’s most remarkable images. The organizing committee decided to introduce local folkloric acts by inviting the Rahbani Brothers and Fairuz to perform in the city of Baalbeck. “Les dames du festival” decided also to improve Lebanese dances and thus they sent siblings Marwan and Wadia Jarrar to Russia to develop their dancing skills. The connection between the Rahbani Brothers and Fairuz, along with the dance troupe formed by the Jarrars, would enrol in the Baalbeck Festival under what would come to be called “The Lebanese Nights”.

Baalbeck International Festival hosted key figures like The New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1959, The Royal Ballet in 1961 and 1964, l’Opéra de Paris in 1962, Umm Kulthum in 1966, Maurice Béjart and his “Ballet du 20e siècle” in 1966 and 1972, the Bolshoi Ballet and Miles Davis in 1971. The festival played a major role in launching the careers of iconic Lebanese singers like Wadih al Safi, Sabah, Nasri Shamseddine, Romeo Lahoud, Philemon Wehbeh, Zaki Nassif, the dance company of ‘Abdel Halim Caracalla and many others.

The Lebanese Nights International and Local Guests

Baalbeck International Festival 2012


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Béjart’s ballet (2009) among many others.For detailed information about the event, schedule, dates and tickets you may visit the following website: www.baalbeck.org.lb

The Festival after 1997

The Festival was put to a halt after the civil war broke out in 1975. It resumed its shows in 1997 with a performance of the famous cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich accompanied by the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1998, the Festival celebrated the centennial of the visit of William II to Baalbeck. The program included performances by jazz giant like the Herbie Hancock Quartet, Nina Simone and finally the legendary Fairuz in her first appearance in the ruins after the end of the war.

The Baalbeck International Festival evolved to become a major International Arts and Culture event, yearly attracting around 15,000 to 20,000 spectators every summer, between July and August. It hosted icons like Sting (2001), Johnny Hallyday (2003), Placido Domingo (2004), Warda al Jaza’iriah (2008) and Maurice

If you are going to see the Baalbeck International Festival, try to plan your trip ensuring you will have some time to spend in the city: most of Baalbeck attractions are best seen during the day. In this way, you will be able to admire the wonderful cultural and religious sites, you will be captured by the friendly atmosphere of the city and you will also have the chance to taste the exceptional delicacies of the local cuisine.

The city of Baalbeck hosting Baalbeck International Festival

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• January 1: New Year’s Day

• January 6: Orthodox Armenian Christmas

• February 9: Saint Maroun’s day is a Christian holiday, celebrated yearly on February 9th. It marks the feast of an ascetic monk, Saint Maroun, who lived in seclusion in northern Syria and died around 410 A.D. He is the spiritual father of the Maronite Church.

• March 25: Annunciation Day

• May 1: Labour Day

• May 6: Martyr’s Day is a national holiday celebrated yearly on May 6th. It commemorates the execution of Lebanese nationalists by the Ottomans in 1916 in Beirut’s central square, named Martyr’s square ever since.

• May 25: Resistance and Liberation Day is a national holiday celebrated on May 25th every year. It marks the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000.

• August 15: Assumption of Virgin Mary

• November 22: Independence Day

• December 25: Christmas Day

• Ramadan: is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset for 30 days during daylight hours. They refrain from eating, drinking or smoking. It honours the revelation of the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad. Fasting is mandatory during the entire month for every able Muslim. Families get up early for suhoor, a meal eaten before the sun rises. At sunset, the daily fasting is broken by an iftar or the evening meal. The meal starts with

Official HolidaysMuslim holidays and the Christian Catholic and Orthodox Good Friday and Easter vary each year according to the lunar calendar.


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• Eid el Adha : Eid el Adha or the “The Feast of the Sacrifice” commemorates the sacrifice that Ibrahim (Abraham) was willing to make of his own son Ismail. It takes place on the 10th and last day of the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). On this day, an animal is sacrificed, in much the same way that Ibrahim sacrificed a lamb. Children get gifts to commemorate the holiday and special prayers are said throughout the day.

• Ashura: is usually celebrated on October 10th. It marks the date of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in the battle of Karbala, while facing the army of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid Ibn Muawiya in 680 A.D. For Shiites, Ashura is a day of mourning and sadness. Funeral convoys and gatherings are held throughout

the eating of three dates – following the practices of Prophet Muhammad. The Maghrib (sunset) prayer, which is the fourth of the five daily prayers, comes after. Then the main meal is served. Nowadays, iftar has grown into banquet festivals. Families, friends and neighbours gather to eat together. The actual night that the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad is called Lailat al Qadr, the night of destiny. Muslims believe that to stand in prayer on this one night is said to be better than a thousand months of worship.

• Eid el Fitr: the “Feast of Fast-Breaking” is celebrated for three days, with the first day marking the end of Ramadan. Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes and attend a special Eid prayer. On this occasion friends and families get together for large meals.

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cities in Lebanon, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, etc. The Umayyad Caliph gave in fact orders to captivate and humiliate the family of Imam Hussein, descendants of the Prophet, known in Arabic as Ahl al-Bayt, the people of the house. The convoy was brought from Karbala to Damascus. During the short stay of the convoy in Baalbeck, the head of Imam Hussein was placed near the spring of Ras al-Ayn, where the Ras al Imam-Hussein Mosque was built. His daughter, Khawla, died in Baalbeck and was buried where the Sayyida Khawla Shrine stands nowadays. The traditional 40 days funeral observation after Ashura is proper to Baalbeck. Shiites gather to mourn and visit the Ras al-Imam al-Hussein and Sayyida Khawla Mosques to pray.

• Islamic New Year: marks the end of the 354 days long lunar Islamic year. It is celebrated on the first day of Muharram, namely the first month of the Islamic calendar. No big celebrations are held during this day. Muslims gather in Mosques for special prayers and readings.

• Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday: is characterized by celebrations aiming at describing the life of Prophet Muhammad and special religious songs.

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Extract from Douaa al-Nadba


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Dabkeh What is DabkehDabkeh is an Arab folk dance native to the Levant countries. It is popular in countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and among the Assyrians of Iraq. Dabkeh consists of a line dance: the leader of the dabkeh heads the line, alternating between facing the audience and the other dancers. It is widely performed at weddings and festive occasions.

Dabkeh in Arabic means literally “stamping of the feet”. The leader, called ras “head” or lawweeh “waver”, is allowed to improvise on the type of dabkeh. The leader twirls a handkerchief or string of beads known as a masbaha (similar to a rosary), while the rest of the dancers keep the rhythm. The dancers also use vocalizations to show energy and keep up the beat. Every step in the dabkeh has its own meaning, including the shoulders’ move and the dancers’ facial expressions.

Dabkeh Baalbakiyah, namely the Dabkeh of Baalbeck, is characterized

by the ‘Arja and Karradiyah dance, known nowadays as Al Zino dabkeh. The steps are more complicated than the usual dabkeh and involve swirling jumps and tricky footwork. Dabkeh in Baalbeck is usually performed at house-buildings, harvests and weddings.

The most fascinating weddings are those celebrated at Al Solh neighbourhood. They attract almost all the inhabitants: these big events in fact engage them in gathering and dancing all night long. The weddings in this part of the town managed to keep their traditional aspect and are still being held like as they used to be a hundred years ago.

The dabkeh was popularized in the 20th

century by the Lebanese composers Assi and Mansour Rahbani and singers like Zaki Nassif, Fairuz, Wadih el Safi, Sabah and Nasri Shamseddine. Baalbeck is renowned for its dabkeh groups: many of them have performed in international festivals around the world.


117117Dabkeh Performance

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Caracalla Dance Company | Tel: 01/499904 www.caracalladance.comAbdel Halim Caracalla was born in Baalbeck in 1940. He is the son of the great poet Abbas Caracalla. He was also Lebanon’s Olympic champion pole-vaulter.

Abdel Halim Caracalla had the chance, in his youth, to watch Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance and hear the music of Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. Those great performers, seen in the Baalbeck International Festival, fascinated Caracalla.

The 25-year-old man decided to leave his hometown and travel abroad to learn to dance. He trained with the revolutionary choreographer Martha Graham at the London Contemporary Dance School and discovered the works of Shakespeare, which have been a perennial inspiration for his productions, from a Midsummer Night’s Dream to The Taming of the Shrew.

Caracalla came back to Lebanon and founded his dance company in 1968. His first studio was his home: at night, he used to move the sofas in the sitting room and turn it into his own dancing studio. The company started growing and Caracalla moved his studio to Beirut. Aiming toward a new language in dance with a style based on the amalgamation of the western and oriental style, the Caracalla Dance Theatre began its rise at the 1972 Festival of Osaka in Japan.

With over 14 productions since 1968, Caracalla has taken his company to perform in major cities and theatres around the world. During the civil war, the company performed in Paris, London, North Africa, Washington DC, Moscow and many other cities. From 1975 to 1992, Caracalla’s dance company crossed every demarcation line to entertain every faction of the bombarded public. When the Baalbeck International Festival resumed its

Famous groups who perform dabkeh in Baalbeck


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Caracalla’s shows

Mystery of the Bizarre (1974) The Black Tents (1978) Shot of Glory (1980) Taming of the Shrew (1982) Echoes (1985) Midsummer Night’s Dream (1990) Elissa, Queen of Carthage (1996) Andalusia, the Lost Glory (1997) Much Ado about Nothing (1999) Andalusia, the Lost Glory (1999) Two Thousand and One Nights (2001) Two Thousand and One Nights (2003) Two Thousand and One Nights (2003) The Villager’s Opera! (2006) Knights of the Moon (2007-2008) Zayed and the Dream (2010).

activities in 1997, the by-now-legendary Caracalla Company was naturally asked to do the honours alongside the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

His style is a sounding mixture of the modern technique of Martha Graham, his folkloric roots and the colourful ebullience of Arabian court culture. Magnificent costumes are his trademark, designed by him after journeying to bazaars from Aleppo to Teheran. Caracalla continues nowadays to be the artistic director of the company and is supported by his equally creative children: Alissar who is the company’s choreographer and Ivan who is a director. The company gathers dancers from Lebanon and abroad. The permanent company of 50 people rehearses six days a week, regardless if there are scheduled performances or not.

The associated dance school teaches 300 students.

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Al Majd| Tel: 08/374618 – 03/942490 www.almajddance.com

The company, which consists of around thirty dancers, was founded in 2000. Al Majd is located in Baal-beck and aims at preserving folklore and folk heritage. The company won numerous medals and certificates of appreciation. The troupe also gradu-ated more than 500 students from

Hayakel Baalbeck| Tel: 08/377933 www.hayakel-baalbeck.com

The company was founded in 1994. It grouped six dancers who were trained by Abu Yehya al Solh and Abu Ibrahim al Solh. The troupe mastered the Dabkeh Baalbakiya and obtained an official license from the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2003. The troupe’s official, cultural and artistic goal is to preserve Lebanese national heritage. The company is managed today by Omar Hamadeh and has around 35 dancers. Mr Hamadeh is keen to present performances that combine Baalbaki folk with the youth spirit.

Hayakel Baalbeck participated in many local festivals like the festivals of Rasha-ya, Ehden, Tyre. The troupe also per-formed alongside Lebanese diva Majida el Roumi in her concerts. The company participated in the festivals for artistic, cultural and folk exchanges in France and in the Arab countries cultural festivals.

The troupe offers courses of dabkeh to all those who wish to learn about the folklore of Baalbeck: national and international amateurs are being trained to dance Baalbaki dabkeh many of them coming from Brazil and France.

its training centre for folk dance in the city of Baalbeck. It participated in many festivals like Jarash Inter-national Festival (2007), Egyptian Opera Festival (2007). The troupe also presented the play Meeting of civilizations at the UNESCO Theatre in Beirut in 2006.


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Amjad Baalbeck|Tel: 03/058404

The company, headed by Mazen Shalha, was founded in 2004. Amjad Baalbeck committed itself at preserving Lebanese heritage. It participated in many Arab and International festivals, the most important being the one that the King of Morocco used to honour the King of Spain. The company also performed alongside famous Lebanese

singer Assi Hellani at the Egyptian Opera Festival, the African Festival in Algeria, Jarash International Festival in Jordan, Baalbeck Folkloric Festivals. The troupe also participated in two fundraising events for dialysis and for homeless children. The troupe offers regular courses to teach dabkeh to amateurs.

Al Shark Company|Tel: 03/765180 – 03/386136

The troupe was founded in 2009 by Ziad Samir Hlayhel. It grouped ten men from Baalbeck, who were trained by one of the sheikhs (elders) of the Dabkeh Baalbakiya, Mohammad Doukhi Solh known as Abu Bilal.

The company evolved and gathered around forty dancers in 2011. On April 18th, 2011 the troupe was officially registered in the Lebanese Government as an artistic and cultural institution, with the aim to preserve the cultural

heritage and folklore of Baalbeck as well as the different Lebanese cultures.

Among the most important per-formances of Al Shark Company, we can mention the participation in Deir el Ahmar’s annual Festivals, participa-tion in Al Qaa Festival, participation to exhibitions in China alongside Caracalla Dance Company, participation in Dubai Festival, Participation in Jarash Festival with singer Assi Hellani and many other local and international events.

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Nargileh

Nargileh, often pronounced also as Argileh, is a special apparatus for smoking tobacco. Also known as hookah or water pipe or shisha, nargileh has a long flexible hose and the smoke is drawn through water. Its origin is India or Persia. It is believed that a Persian physician at the Indian Court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar “first passed the smoke of tobacco through a small bowl of water to purify and cool the smoke and thus invented the hubble-bubble or hookah”. The first nargileh was made out of coconut shell. Charcoal is placed on the top of the tobacco. Smoking the hookah gained popularity outside of its native region

in India and the Middle East and is gaining popularity in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. During ancient times, having an ornamental nargileh in one corner of the room was fashionable and the status of a hostess was often determined by the nargileh she offered her guests.

The tobamel (mu’assal), which is a flavoured mixture of tobacco and molasses, is the main product consumed in nargileh. There is a wide array of flavoured tobacco such as apple, lemon, mint, strawberry, grapes, rose, etc.


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Artisan making Nargileh

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In the Arab world, smoking nargileh is considered a part of the local culture and traditions. Social smoking is done in the forms of parties or small get-togethers. The house and the café represent the main places where conviviality of nargileh emerges.

Most cafés in Baalbeck offer shishas: it is part of Baalbeck’s every day culture and is a very sociable activity. These cafés are seen as social places, where people discuss on varied issues. Nargileh smokers believe it gives you time to think while smoking, teaches patience and tolerance and gives you an appreciation of good company.

When the smoker is finished, either the hose is placed back on the table signifying that it is available, or it is handed from one user to the next, folded back on itself so that the mouthpiece is not pointing at the recipient. It takes about an hour to smoke a pipe full of fruit tobacco.


125125Nargileh


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Baalbeck • Tourism


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Baalbeck Tourism

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Baalbeck Quality Label and its slogan “Enjoy Baalbeck Quality” are intended to guide visitors, and tourists to recognize the local products and their values.

Hotels and Restaurants displaying the logo give evidence that these establishments successfully participated in training activities aimed at increasing the levels of quality and customer care. Soon the logo will be also used for the original Baalbeck products (food, handicrafts etc) as well as for all the tourist services that are in compliance with the quality standards set by the relevant Lebanese Authorities.

The logo integrates the 2 main golden eras of Baalbeck, “the city of the Sun”: the Roman and the Islamic period. The 6 columns of the Jupiter Temple, witnessing the value of Baalbeck since Roman period, are used as the symbol of the earth reaching the sun and as a reflection of the Roman greatness. The Islamic era is reflected in the circular golden Islamic pattern representing the sun.

The Arabic words for Baalbeck are the roots of the logo, signifying that the city itself is the source of all the past and present achievements.

BaalbeckQuality Label


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Shopping in

Baalbeck

There are many traditional shops in Baalbeck that may attract your attention. Do not forget to pass by the souk and feel yourself a part of the local community.

The flavour of Baalbeck food is something you will most probably be willing to bring with you: we recommend you don’t forget the preserved food and the typical dishes that you may find in the Cookbook section of this guidebook. In some cases and if cooking is your hobby you won’t resist buying yourself some of the typical tools that can be used for preparing the typical Baalbeck and Lebanese food. Here we list some of the most common cooking tools you may see in Baalbeck shops:

Shawbak: wooden rolling pin, used to prepare a wide variety of dough based dishes and pastries.

Ma’amoul moulds: carved wooden moulds specially used to prepare the ma’amoul, traditional oriental pastries associated with major feasts.

Wooden garlic pestle: a wooden bowl and mortar used to crush garlic.

Terra-cotta plates: small round terra cotta plates, traditionally used to serve the different varieties of the mezzeh.

Beautiful scarves and nargileh may be found all around the city driving your attention with their colours and shapes. Bringing back home with you part of the local traditional handcrafts will certainly help you preserve the memory of the feeling of your visit to Baalbeck.


131131Scarfes from Baalbeck


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Baalbeck offers magnificent landscapes, various traditions and beautiful historical hotels. Modern hotels were established in recent years, reflecting the city’s adaptation with modernism.

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of hotels and accommodation facilities available in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the hotels which successfully took part in the “Quality Hotel Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.

Hotels and Accommodations in

Baalbeck


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Al-Shams Hotel Abdel Halim Hajjar Street 08/373284 – 70/069757 – 03/770990 [email protected] The hotel has three rooms with washbasins and a shared toilet and bath.

Green Paradise Hotel Ras al-Ayn Street Tel: 70/373567

Close to Ras al-Ayn spring, with a view on the mountains to the west, the hotel is furnished with modern amenities: it has spacious rooms, all centrally air-conditioned, with satellite TV, an international direct dial telephone and free internet access. The hotel’s restaurants offer a variety of international cuisine. Breakfast is served.

Jupiter Hotel Abdel Halim Hajjar Street 08/376715 - 03/199843

The hotel has ten furnished large rooms overlooking its central courtyard and some with a view on the Archeological Ruins. The rooms are all equipped with fans and stoves for winter time. This hotel is also one of the German archaeologist team’s favourite options.

Hotel Pension Jammal Abdel Halim Hajjar Street 08/370649 – 03/716072

It is the German archaeologists’ favourite place. Rooms are available on both sides of the road. Most of them are equipped with black pot-bellied boilers. The hotel offers breakfast.

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La Memoire Hotel Saint Georges Street 08/373730 - 03/556944 www.lamemoirehotel.com

Located within a walking distance from the ruins, the hotel combines tradition and modernism with its Arabian style designed rooms. The hotel has single, double, twin rooms as well as junior suites. One of the rooms has a terrace and another is reserved for non-smokers. The hotel’s facilities include a barber and beauty salon, a coffee shop and a restaurant. The hotel also welcomes you on its terrace to enjoy a traditional nargileh. Free internet is available.

Hotel Kanaan Ras al-Ayn Street 03/670282- 70/177273

Overlooking Ras al-Ayn spring, this newly built hotel has ten suites and forty rooms. The rooms are fully furnished with modern equipment and facilities. Free Wi-Fi is available. Breakfast is served. The hotel also welcomes you to its international restaurant where you can enjoy its delicious cuisine.


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Palmyra Hotel Abdel Halim Hajjar Street 08/370230 [email protected] [email protected] www.baalbeckpalmyrahotel.com

The oldest hotel of Lebanon has a wonderful view of the Archaeological Ruins. It has hosted Baalbeck’s important visitors from General Charles de Gaulle to Jean Cocteau, whose drawings can still be found everywhere in the hotel. All the furniture in the rooms is antique, from the brass beds to the wash stands which add an ambiance and a feeling rarely found in today’s hotel culture. A new wing has been added to the main hotel: an old Lebanese house has been renovated and converted into a restaurant, bar including five rooms in compliance with the traditional Palmyra style. The furniture remains antique but the bathrooms have new designs, they have balconies and are all equipped with a heating system. Breakfast is served at the hotel’s restaurant.

Shouman Hotel Ras al-Ayn Blvd 08/372685 - 03/796077 [email protected]

The hotel is located in the building’s first floor, next to the Archaeological Site and not far from the Venus Temple. It offers a great view of the ruins. Shouman Hotel has five rooms with a shared bath and toilet. Two additional rooms are available with private bathrooms and hot water. Free Wi-Fi is available. Breakfast is offered at the Cesar Taverne restaurant.

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Restaurants

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of restaurants that serve traditional food and Lebanese Mezzeh in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the restaurants which successfully took part in the “Quality Restaurant and Catering Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.


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Restaurant Al Ajame Souks Street 03/370051

You can enjoy traditional Lebanese dishes served during daily lunch meals.

Restaurant Al Rawabi Ras al-Ayn 08/371666

This restaurant serves typical Lebanese dishes and can host up to 500 customers.

Restaurant Al Thuraya Douris Main Road 08/340961 – 03/847181

The restaurant offers Eastern and Western cuisine, all kinds of juices and pastries.

Restaurant Baytna Ras al-Ayn Street 70/524878

Baytna can provide Lebanese mezzeh for 50 persons in its indoor and outdoor space. It also serves Lebanese daily lunch meals.

Lebanese Mezzeh

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Restaurant King Ras al-Ayn, close to Al Bayada 08/371849 – 03/378367


Restaurant Machawi Near Sayyida Khawla’s Shrine 08/375636 - 70/375636

The restaurant can host 200 persons in its indoor and outdoor space. It also serves Lebanese breakfast.

Restaurant Paradise Ras al-Ayn Street 70/925263

100 persons can enjoy a traditional Lebanese breakfast of foul (dish made of fava beans, one of the best in town) and hummus in the indoor and outdoor space. The restaurant opens from 7.00 till 14.00.

Restaurant Ras El-Ayn Near Ras al Hussein Mosque 08/370616

The restaurant serves traditional Lebanese dishes and can receive up to 500 persons. It organizes wedding dinners in its indoor and outdoor dining halls.


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Restaurant Shahrazad Yaghi Simbala Centre 08/371851

The restaurant can receive up to 250 persons. It has an indoor and outdoor space. It also offers alcohol.

Restaurant Sun Palace Al Qalaa 08/372685


Restaurant Taverne Cesar Al Qalaa Street 08/372685 – 03/796077

The Taverne hosts up to 50 persons in its indoor and outdoor space facing the temples. It also serves traditional Lebanese breakfast and offers free Wi-Fi for its visitors

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For a traditional sandwich…

These are the places where you can enjoy traditional Lebanese sandwiches like falafel, shawarma, etc

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of restaurants that serve traditional sandwiches in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the restaurants which successfully took part in the “Quality Restaurant and Catering Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.


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Restaurant Al Fajer Yaghi Square 03/038846

Restaurant Al Hana’ Douris- Baalbeck Main Road 03/841408 Restaurant Al Hana’ also serves traditional Lebanese breakfast

Restaurant Adraj Baalbeck Ras al-Ayn Street 08/377599

Restaurant Al Bakhach Nasser Square Tel: 70/005907

Restaurant and Café Al Dawha Near Sayyida Khawla’s Shrine 08/375636

Lebanese Kebab

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Restaurant and Café Hayakel Baalbeck Bechara Khoury Street 08/372854

Restaurant Khayam Abdel Halim Hajjar Street 08/370329

Restaurant Khayam can host up to 18 persons and serves traditional Lebanese breakfast.

Restaurant and Café Layalina Bechara Khoury Street 08/371448

Restaurant Nabouch Camille Chamoun Street Tel: 08/371445 Capacity: 40 persons

Restaurant and Café Arcada Old Souk 03/961691

Arcada welcomes you to its outdoor and indoor space. It also serves traditional Lebanese breakfast and Lebanese coffee.

Restaurant Barakat Near Sayyida Khawla’s Shrine 08/372990

Restaurant and Café Diwan Al Hallani Ras al-Ayn Street 03/445372

Restaurant Farhat Bechara Khoury Street 08/371448


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Restaurant Zahrat Loubnan Ras al-Ayn Street 03/445372 Capacity: 50 persons

Restaurant and Café Venus Facing Al Barbara Mosque 08/371851

Restaurant Nadim Bechara Khoury Street 08/372854 Capacity: 8 persons

Restaurant and Café Nawras Ras al-Ayn Street 70/524878

Restaurant Sindibad Bechara Khoury Street 08/371452 Capacity: 16 persons

Pizza Uno Al Manini Centre 08/372117 – 03/251158

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…or for a snack

These places serve Lebanese sandwiches like falafel, shawarma, etc. and are the most suitable places to grab a bite on the way.

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of food stalls and bakeries that serve traditional sandwiches in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the food stalls and bakeries which successfully took part in the “Quality Restaurant and Catering Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.


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Snack Al Iman Ras al-Ayn Street 08/376125

Snack Balouk Serail Street 71/306088

Snack Balouk serves snack as well as fruit cocktails and juices.

Snack Malak Al Vitamine Serail Square 08/379636 – 371936 - 378936

Furn Al Siyaha Khalil Mutran Square 71/467078 - 03/406942

Furn Al Siyaha is a traditional bakery which serves the traditional sfiha, one of the best in town.

La Sheesh Souks street 03/465719

Snack Al Zahra’ Serail Street 03/283388

Lebanese Saj

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Pastry shops

Pastry shops in Baalbeck offer a variety of delicious Lebanese sweets like Baklava, ‘Osmaliyeh, Karabij, etc. Don’t miss the traditional Baalbaki sweet Nammoura bi ashta: it is unlike anything you’ve tasted before.

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of pastry shops that serve traditional sweets in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the pastry shops which successfully took part in the “Quality Restaurant and Catering Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.


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Pastry Al Halani Saint George Street 03/658151

Pastry Al Hana Al Chaykh Habib Street 08/373242

Pastry Al Jawhara Salah Haydar Street 08/371543

Pastry Abou Tayeb Nasr Square 03/498615

Pastry Al Ashi Souk Street 71249981

Pastry Al Haidari Rue Bechara El Khoury 03/822431

This pastry shop serves fabulous Ma’amoul mad bi ashta.

Baklava

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Pastry Bayan Souks Street 71/395634

Pastry Berro Al Assira Street 08/373742

Pastry Hussein Al Afrah Camille Chamoun Street 08/372850

Pastry Al Jawhari Souks Street 03/434616

This pastry shop is one of the oldest in Baalbeck: it serves fabulous Knefe bi ashta and the famous nammoura bi ashta.

Pastry Asala Bechara Khoury Street 08/372854

Pastry Al Zawak Camille Chamoun Street 08/374091

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Baalbek • Tourism

Preparation of Knefe

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Cafés

In the following places you can try the experience of smoking a nargileh, having traditional coffee or tea and drinking some of the city’s most exotic fruit cocktails.

Here you can find a list (in alphabetical order) of coffee shops that serve traditional coffee, tea and food in Baalbeck. The “Baalbeck Quality label” ( ) indicates the coffee places which successfully took part in the “Quality Restaurant and Catering Training Course”. These establishments are thus committed to provide a qualified service with special attention to their customers care and well-being.


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Café Crystal Serail Street 08/370285

Café Daou Kamar Nasser Square 70/005977

Café Saydah Ras al-Ayn Street 08/377599

Al Bal Café 76/738097

Al Madina Park 03/766159

Ananas Café Yaghi Street 03/038846

Cardamom seeds

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How Baalbeck(and Lebanon) works

Languages in LebanonThe official language is Arabic, followed by English and French. Armenian is spo-ken among the Armenian community of Lebanon.

TimeLebanese time is G.M.T +2 hours in winter (October to March) and +3 hours in summer (April to September).

SecurityBaalbeck is perfectly safe to visit. In Baalbeck, streets are particularly safe day and night. The city’s culture encourages the citizens to watch out for tourists while touring the city.

Travel advicesTourists should carry identity cards or passport at all times as checkpoints on the way to Baalbeck might require showing them.

If you are travelling in the evening or in dark hours and you come across a check point it is a common use to turn on the inside light to facilitate the police control procedures.

Registration of your presence at your Embassy through the available tools (dedicated websites etc) is always advisable.


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Baalbeck Health CareHealth insurance is essential. Doctors normally speak either English or French. The majority of hospitals in the region are private and require proof of the patient’s ability to pay the bill before providing treatments.

Tourists who are not insured and require hospitalization should contact their Embassy for advice.Standards at Lebanon’s public hospitals are generally lower.

Health TipsNo particular vaccine is required to visit the country. Hepatitis A and B vaccines are recommended; also make sure Tetanus-Diphtheria and measles vaccinations are up-to-date. A typhoid vaccine is also recommended for travel to Lebanon.

Food and DrinksAlthough tap water is chlorinated it is not recommended to drink it. Bottled water is widely used. Milk is pasteurized and dairy products are safe for consumption. Local meat, poultry, sea food, fruits and vegetables are generally considered safe to eat.

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Postal ServicesIt is recommended to go directly to the post office for any postal needs. The mail forwarding is fairly fast (about one week for Europe and North America).

ElectricityElectric voltage is 220, 50 cycles. A two-pin plug, with round pins is commonly used. (Type C, similar to many European countries).

CurrencyLebanon’s currency is the Lebanese lira (LL) or Lebanese pound. There are a few coins of LL50, 100 and (more commonly) 250 and 500 pieces in circulation, as well as paper bills of 1,000; 5,000; 10,000; 20,000; 50,000 and 100,000. US Dollars are accepted everywhere and are interchangeable with the Lebanese lira. Many places give change in either currency. The US$/L.L. exchange rate is relatively stable, hovering around US$ 1= L.L. 1,500.The Euro/L.L. exchange rate has fluctuated over the years. Check your currency converter before you head to Baalbeck.

Travellers’ cheques (in any currency) are not accepted. The best way to access cash is through the ATMs available in the city. ATMs accept credit cards or co-branded home banking cards for Cirrus, Diners Club, Maestro, MasterCard, Visa and Visa-Electron and dispense cash in both Lebanese lira and US dollars.

There are plenty of moneychangers that sometimes offer better rates than the banks. Check commission, which can range from 3% to 5%.


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Car DrivingIf you intend to drive in Lebanon, it is imperative to have an international driving license in case you don’t

TransportationService and taxi: the best and cheapest way to get around is by taxi or a shared taxi known locally as “service.” Taxis and services are usually Mercedes cars distinguished by red number plates. Service taxis will stop wherever you want, provided that your destination is within the route or itinerary of the other passengers sharing the car with you. Taxis will have higher price but take you directly to destination.

If you are standing on a street, services and taxis usually stop and honk. Shout your destination to the driver and if he nods then get in,

whereas if he tips his head upward or glances up (typical Lebanese body language), then it’s a no. Payment for “services” is usually a standard charge of 2.000 L.L. unless you are going to another city where you may have to take more than one service. It is better to set the price beforehand, after a brief friendly bargaining.

Buses: the microbuses are on the whole cheaper and offer regular departures to Zahle, Baalbeck, Beirut, Masnaa and Damascus and less frequent departures to Rashaya and El Qaraoun. The trip from Beirut to Baalbeck takes about two hours each way.

have a Lebanese one. Be sure at all times to drive on the right side of the road.

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Social conventionsCitizens of Baalbeck are known for their hospitality. A handshake is the normal form of greeting for men whereas women should just nod.

A small gift is a must, particularly if invited at somebody’s home for a meal.

Smoking is common and acceptable unless specified otherwise.

Dress and Behaviour CodeVisitors are kindly asked to respect the religious places during their visit by observing simple rules of conduct. It is therefore recommended to follow some basic rules and guidelines for clothing and behaviour to avoid causing any offence.

• Modest, conservative, loose fitting clothing, long sleeves, long skirts and trousers are always a good option.

• Transparent (see-through) clothing should be generally avoided.

• Shorts for men are not advisable, as shorts and miniskirts are not considered as the best option for ladies: skirts are preferred if ankle length.

A brief insight to local etiquette for foreigners and hints to enjoy your stay

Be n ice wi th

Baalbeck


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• Refrain from intimate behaviour in public (i.e. holding hands or kissing) and especially in places of worship is a good way to respect the local habits.

• For respect to worshippers, visitors should stay within the areas of the mosque that are permitted and not roam freely around.

• Smoking and food are not allowed in the Mosque areas, within a Church or any Holy place. Visitors are requested not to touch the Holy Qur’an (Holy Book) or architectural elements inside the main prayer hall.

• It is always advisable not to visit mosques or churches during prayer time or ceremonies.

• Tight clothing, swimwear and beachwear are never recommended while visiting historical cities and in Baalbeck would not be considered appropriate.

• Shoes shall be removed before entering Mosques, so slip off shoes can be a comfortable choice to make this process easier.

• Bringing a headscarf for ladies is important as they will be asked to cover their head in Shrines and Mosques. In some mosques you may borrow an abaya (a traditional tunic with hood) that will help you feel more comfortable within the holy places while respecting the rules.

Baalbeck Welcome

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TippingTips should be handed to porters, waiters, hotel staff, guides, doormen, etc. The average rate in restaurants in 10-15% whereas with other service providers anywhere between 2.000 and 10.000 are acceptable (depending on the type of service and quality provided). Consider that in some cases (e.g. the waiters that will help you with your nargileh and others) the tip constitutes their only form of salary.

Eating in Lebanon

Public Holidays

Eating in Lebanon is tied to family: people almost never eat alone. The Lebanese consider eating out a social and almost aesthetic experience.

Breakfast, is usually served between 7h00 and 8h30 a.m. Traditionally, it consists of dairy products, such as Labneh and white cheese, served with olive oil, accompanied by olives and warm bread. Some have the famous man’ousheh, the Lebanese breakfast, similar to a pizza. Tea and other hot drinks are served on table.

Lunch, the largest of the three meals eaten each day, is usually served around 2:00 p.m. It consists traditionally of a series of appetizer-like dishes called the mezzeh served alongside the national salad: namely Tabbouleh or Fattoush. Dessert would include the delicious Lebanese sweets and a wide variety of fruits.

Dinner is usually served around 7:00 p.m. It consists of the leftovers of lunch or dairy products served with bread and tea. When families gather for dinner, mezzeh, meat based dishes and desserts are served.

18 different communities co-exist in Lebanon. Thus, the country has a full calendar of official holidays. Banks, government offices and schools are closed during those holidays. However, it is possible to find shops and restaurants open for customers.

Muslim holidays are timed according to local sightings of various phases of the moon and the dates given below are therefore approximate. During the month of Ramadan, that precedes Eid el Fitr, Muslims fast during the day and feast at night: normal business patterns may be interrupted.


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Dining EtiquetteIf you are invited to a Lebanese house for dinner the following hints may help you feeling at home:

• Dress well, sportswear is not appropriate.

• Greet elders first • Lebanese table manners are

relatively formal so you should wait to be told where to sit.

• Avoid sensitive topics of conversation such as politics, religion or the civil war unless you know the hosts are comfortable talking about it.

• You will be expected to try all foods at the table.

• Bread is the basic element for any Lebanese meal: it replaces the spoon, the fork and the napkin.

• Expect to be urged to take second or even third helpings. It is thus best to eat less on your first helping so that a second helping is possible. This shows your host you are enjoying the food and are being taken care of.

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In case of…

Phone LinesThe first two digits of Lebanese telephone numbers are the area code. The area code for Beirut is (01), (08) for Bekaa. If you are dialling Lebanon from outside the country, omit the (0) in the area code.

Telephone booths are accessible for local and international calls. Payphone cards are available in post offices. Mobile phones can be widely found in the Lebanese market; however most businesses and homes have land lines. The area codes for mobile phones are (03), (70), (71) and (76).


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Useful numbersCountry Code +961

Municipality of Baalbeck 08/370214 - 08/377350

Lebanese Red Cross 140

Civil Defence 125

Police 112

Lebanese Internal security 1722

General Security 1717

Fire Department 175

Ministry of Tourism Zahle 08/802566

Ministry of Tourism Beirut 01/340940

Lebanon Call Services 1515

Electricity of Lebanon 1707

Airport 150

Weather 1718

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Al Hekma Hospital Baalbeck North Entrance, Tall el Abyad Tel: 08 379138

Al Tatari Hospital Baalbeck North Entrance Tel: 08 371 903

Al Mortada Hospital Baalbeck Southern Entrance Tel: 08 377880/1

Al Rayan Hospital Baalbeck North Entrance, Al Sharawna Tel: 08377490

HospitalBaalbeck Governmental Hospital Ras al-Ayn Tel: 08/370470 Fax:08/370022

Dar Al Amal University Hospital Douris main road Tel: 08/340620-1-2-3-4 Fax: 08/340627

Ibn Sina Hospital Baalbeck-Tall el Abyad Tel: 08/371811 - 08/376811


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PharmaciesAl Hadissa pharmacy Bechara Khoury Street 08/371786 - 03/379743

Al Kafaa pharmacy Bechara Khoury Street 08/374734 - 03/740250

Al Jadida pharmacy Saleh Haidar Street 08/370626

Al Masri pharmacy Baalbeck 08/376631 – 03/641373

Al Wafa’ pharmacy Sheikh Habib Street 08/376730

Baalbeck Pharmacy Ras al-Ayn Street 08/371920 - 03/059049

Ghassan pharmacy Abdel Halim Hajjar Street Tel/fax: 08/370320

Nabil pharmacy Baalbeck 08/325611

Razi pharmacy Nasser Square 08/376370 - 03/258155

Rida pharmacy Bechara el Khoury Street 08/371363 - 03/352030

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Banks

Bank of Lebanon Bechara Khoury Street Tel: 08/370444 Fax: 08/377251

Bank Saderat Iran Near Liban Post Tel: 08/373858; 08/371841

Bank Saderat Iran operates from Monday to Thursday from 8.00 till 13.30; and on Friday and Saturday from 8.00 till 12.00.

BBAC: Bank of Beirut and Arab Countries Al Qalaa Street Tel: 08/374014 Fax: 08/374016 Mobile: 03/614899

BBAC operates from Monday to Friday from 8.00 till 14.00 and on Saturday till 12.00

Société Nouvelle de la Banque de Syrie et du Liban Khalil Mutran Square Tel: 08/370333 Fax: 08/371876

Société Nouvelle de la Banque de Syrie et du Liban operates from Monday to Friday from 8.00 till 14.00 and on Saturday till 13.00

Fransabank Ras al-Ayn Street Tel: 08/373151 - 08/373801 Fax: 08/370379

Fransabank operates from Monday to Friday from 8.00 till 17.00 and on Saturday till 14.00

Jammal Trust Bank Khalil Mutran Square Tel: 08/371198 - 08/371275

Jammal Trust Bank operates from Monday to Friday from 8.30 till 13.30 and on Saturday till 13.00


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Mobile companiesMTC Touch -01/566111

Alfa 08/544995 Bekaa 03/391000 Beirut

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Useful WebsitesBeirut Airport www.beirutairport.gov.lb

Lebanese Ministry of Tourism www.lebanon-tourism.gov.lb

Baalbeck Municipality www.baalbeckmunicipality.com

Baalbeck Union www.baalbeckunion.gov.lb

Lebanese Association of Travel and Tourist Agents www.1stlebanon.net

Lebanese Syndicate of Car rentals - http://carrentalsyndicate.com/

Lebanese Syndicate of Tourist Guides http://tourguideslb.com/guide.html

Lebanese Yellow Pages www.yellowpages.com.lb

Lebanese White Pages www.leb.org

Liban Post www.libanpost.com.lb

Governmental Portal for Information and Forms www.informs.gov.lb

Ministry of Environment www.moe.gov.lb

Ministry of Telecommunications - www.mpt.gov.lb

Ministry of Public Health www.public-health.gov.lb

Baalbek • Tourism

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Baalbeck • Cookbook

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Baalbeck Cookbook

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Baalbek • Cookbook

CookbookBaalbeck has a wide culinary tradition: local cuisine represents a part of Baalbeck culture that should not be missed by those who really want to discover this wonderful city. This cookbook, by presenting some of the most popular recipes, is intended to offer the visitors and cooking lovers the opportunity to discover local ingredients, organize a “culinary visit” in the city and take home “a zest of Baalbeck taste”.

Ambrees

Main ingredients in Lebanese and Baalbeck dishes

Ambrees is a white salty, acid, yogurt-type cheese of soft consistency obtained from the processing of goat milk. The characteristic of the ambrees lies in the recipient in which it is produced: the serdaleh. Serdaleh is an elongated jar (about 1m-long), made of terracotta.

Peculiarity of the serdaleh is a wide opening on the top which allows adding milk, removing the solid ambrees when ready and, ultimately, cleaning the jar. Serdaleh is also used in some cases, as in Mount Lebanon,

to indicate the product, the ambrees, rather than only the recipient. The end of the serdaleh is pointed. The jar is kept up by a stand.

In the bottom side of the serdaleh there’s a small opening that is usually closed by a willow twig. At the beginning of the goat milking season, raw milk, to which 10% sea salt is added, is put in the serdaleh, the milk will start to ferment. A few days later, the fermented solids will be separated from the liquid and will float on its surface.


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The twig will be carefully removed and the somewhat transparent liquid, the whey, will be drained out through the opening. Milk is added from the top and whey removed from the bottom opening until the serdaleh is filled. About three months later, depending mainly on the prevailing weather conditions, the ambrees can be collected and consumed either fresh or made into balls and preserved in olive oil.

Ambrees is produced between May and October in specific geographical areas where goats graze. A crucial factor is the know-how of the producers built over generations: the producer with his observation and expertise knows where to place the serdaleh, the proportion between salt and milk and the fermenting conditions in order to obtain an excellent product.

Ambrees

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Tannour breadTo prepare tannour bread wheat flour is mixed to yeast and little salt and kneaded with water until it becomes dough. It is then left for several hours to double in size. When the dough is ready, it is cut into orange size balls, sprinkled with wheat flour and left to rest and rise again. A wooden board is sprinkled with flour: using both hands in a traditional way the balls are flattened, one ball at a time, into discs ready for baking.

The oven where this kind of bread is baked is called the tannour and consists in a hole dug in the ground. The centre is left to natural state and the edges are covered by clay in order to allow the bread loaves to stick to them. The fire is placed in the centre: the clay walls heat up and transfer this heat to the dough loaves placed on the walls.

When it is baked, the border of the bread becomes crispy and golden. The bread is then removed and is replaced by another loaf. The tannour can handle about three loaves at a time. The preparation of the tannour bread lies mainly on the experience of the baker and is directly to the heat supplied and the time needed to obtain a well done, somewhat crispy, light golden bread. The bread is left to cool and then packed into plastic bags.

Tannour bread used to be the main type of bread consumed in some regions of Lebanon. It used to be prepared on a daily basis by the housewives. Nowadays, in Baalbeck and other places where tannour bread is traditionally consumed there are bakeries for tannour bread that is prepared using blanched flour.


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Tannour bread inside oven

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Burghul Burghul is durum wheat ground into coarse, fine and very fine size grains.

The wheat is boiled until the seeds are opened. They are then filtered and put directly on the flat roof tops of the houses to dry in the sun for several days. During the first day the seeds are frequently turned over until they become completely dry.

The seeds are put in bags and taken to special mills to grind the wheat. The ground burghul is then sifted to be separated and collected on three

different grades: coarse, medium and fine size. Each of these has its own traditional use.

Burghul is one of the staple ingredients of the Lebanese diet. The different grades are used for different purposes in the cuisine: the coarse one is used for cooking recipes such as mdardara (lentil with burghul); the medium sized one is used to prepare kebbeh or tabbouleh.

The finest size, called sreyseerah, is used to make vegetarian kebbeh and is not easily found on the market.


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KeshekKeshek (or keshk, kshk) is a dehydrated fermented mixture of yogurt laban, milk, salt and ground wheat (burghul). The colour varies depending on the variety of wheat used: ivory for tender wheat and light brown in case of “baladi” (local) durum wheat.

To prepare Keshek, the burghul (1 kg) is soaked with yogurt laban (1 kg) for 24 hours although some people prefer to soak the burghul in raw milk. Meanwhile, 5 kg of salted yogurt are moved out of the refrigerator to acidify.

The second day, the yogurt is added to the mixture and the resulting product is covered with a thin cheesecloth to keep it away from dust and insects and left for 5 days to ferment. The mixture is stirred daily. Once it becomes quite

sour, it is spread into small lumps and put on clean plastic sheets, covered with thin cheese cloth and sun dried for several days. During the sun drying process, the lumps are rubbed between the palms of the hand until they separate into a coarse powder.

The final product is screened in the traditional ghurbal and the remaining large particles are ground mechanically into a fine powder. After that the keshek is put again to sun dry for one or two days and stored in glass jars or plastic bags.

It can be cooked with kawarma (meat preserved in sheep fat) in winter, as a soup or eaten as a cold dish with water, tomato, onion, mint and olive oil or used to make keshek man’ousheh.

Keshek

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Eggplants MakdousFor this appetizer, small local eggplants, mainly Kafarsusi quality, are generally used. They are stuffed with a mixture of sweet or hot pepper, walnut and garlic and preserved in olive oil.

Ingredients: 10 kg eggplants, 1 kg walnuts, 1 kg red hot and sweet pepper (to be adjusted according to personal taste), 1 kg of coarse salt, 3 cloves of garlic and 10 kg of olive oil.

Preparation: Boil the eggplants entirely in water in a stainless container and then cool them down under running water. Remove the stalk and cut the eggplants laterally in order to put some sea salt inside. Place them in a colander covered with a textile cloth and where they shall be pressed for around 24 hours. The following day prepare the stuffing made of red pepper, walnut, garlic and coarse salt. Stuff the eggplants and put them in sterilized glass jars. As a final step, fill the whole jar with olive oil adding oil for the following ten days when necessary considering that the eggplants absorb the oil and should be always fully soaked in it. Eggplants Makdous can be preserved for 1 year.

Appetizers

Eggplants Makdous


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Makhlouta bi kawarma (mixed legumes with processed meat and coarse burghul)

Burghul in Keshek with fried onionsIngredients: 2 cups fine burghul (sreyseerah), 1 cup of keshek, olive oil, and small sized white onions grilled.

Preparation: Pour boiling water over the burghul and let soak for ½ hr. Put the keshek over the soaked burghul and mix well with your hands. Pour into the serving plate and put olive oil on top for serving.

Burghul with Keshek is served warm with fried small white onions grilled.

Ingredients: 1cup lentils, 1 cup chickpeas, 1 cup red beans, 1 cup fava beans, 1 cup kawarma or ½ cup olive oil, 3 large chopped onions, 1 cup coarse burghul, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp ground cumin.

Preparation: Soak the chickpeas and the beans overnight. Cook the legumes until tender over medium fire. Meanwhile fry the chopped onions with the kawarma or (as alternative for vegetarians) in olive oil until transparent. Add this mixture to the legumes and to burghul. Leave on low fire till they combine very well and the burghul is tender. Add salt and cumin. Pour into a serving plate. Serve hot as a main dish with bread and tender radishes. The vegetarian makhlouta can be served cold as well. This dish can be accompanied with eggplant pickles.

Main Dishes

Burghul in keshek

Makhlouta bi kawarma

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Sfiha or fatayer bilahme (Bread triangles stuffed with meat) Dough ingredients: 1 tbsp of yeast, 1½ cup of warm water, 1 tbsp of sugar, ¾ tsp of salt, 3 tbsp of oil, 4 cups of flour.

Preparation: Mix flour with yeast and warm water, sugar, salt and oil to obtain dough of medium softness. Cover the dough with a towel and place it in a warm environment for around 30 to 4-5 minutes until it swells. Divide dough into walnut size balls. Roll between hand palms until smooth. Roll out balls with a rolling pin to form 8 cm diameter circles.

Filling Ingredients: 1 kg minced lamb meat, 3 chopped onions, ½ cup pine nuts, 2 tsp of sumac, 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt.

Preparation: Fry the chopped onions in the oil until transparent then add the pine nuts until they turn yellow. Add the meat and cook well. Season with the sumac and salt. Fill the dough with 1 tbsp of meat mixture. Bring the edges up with water using a brush or your fingertip and press to make an oval shape. Put the prepared meat pastries in an oiled oven tray and bake for 20 minutes or until the dough turns golden and meat is cooked.

Sfiha Baalbakiye

Sfiha Baalbakiye (Baalbeck Sfiha) is the most famous dish in Baalbeck. Visitors shouldn’t miss it when visiting the city.


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Kawaj (Baalbeck Vegetable Pie)Ingredients: 2 to 3 zucchinis, 2 medium sized peeled potatoes, 1 big eggplant unpeeled, 2 red onions, 2 peppers (1 red and 1 green), 3 tomatoes, 2 peeled carrots, 1 cup of water, 500 gr. of meat, 4 big tsp of butter (or margarine), 1 tsp of black pepper and sweet pepper, ½ tsp of paprika.

Preparation: Cut all the vegetables into cubes, fry the potatoes, zucchini, onions, pepper and eggplant separately and set them aside. Fry the meat with the carrots and tomatoes. Add salt, spices and water to the fried meat. Put the vegetables and the fried meat in an oven dish and bake the mix in the oven for 30 minutes.

Mjaddra (Lentils with Burghul)Ingredients: 1½ cups of green lentils, 1½ cups of coarse burghul, 3 onions, olive oil, salt, water.

Preparation: Chop the onions into small pieces and cook them with olive oil. Put lentils in water and boil them. Wait until the lentils and onions are cooked. Put the onions aside and wait till their colour turns black. Filter the oil from the onions and put it over the lentils. Onions are ground with some water and poured over the lentils.

Add salt and cook the mixture for 10 minutes. Add burghul and wait until the mixture is ready.

Kawaj

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Ingredients: 1 kg of small eggplants, 250gr of minced meat, 1 onion finely chopped , salt and black pepper, 1tbsp toasted pine nuts, 1 tsp of different spices, 1 tsp dry red pepper, 1tbsp margarine to fry the meat, oil to fry eggplants, ½ a kg of peeled and finely chopped tomatoes.

Preparation: Peel the eggplants and cut a small slit on the side of the eggplants through which they will be stuffed with the meat. Fry eggplants in the oil until they are well done and put them aside. Fry the onions with

Menzalehmargarine in a pan. Add meat, salt, peppers and spices and stir the mixture until the meat is well done. Add the toasted pine nuts to the meat. When ready, stuff the deep-fried eggplants with the meat mixture through the slit.

Then, place the stuffed eggplants in the oven. Distribute chopped tomatoes over the eggplants. Sprinkle the eggplants with salt and pepper. Add 2 cups of water in the pan and put the men in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes. You can eat this dish with bread.


181Menazaleh ingredients

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Nammoura bi ashta (Nammoura stuffed with cream) Ingredients: 1 kg semolina, ½ kg sugar, ¼ scoop margarine, 1 ½ scoop milk, ¼ scoop sugar syrup, pistachios for decoration, ashta.

Preparation: Mix lukewarm water with milk. Add semolina and sugar and mix them thoroughly. Add sugar syrup, margarine and knead them well. Leave the compost for 12 or 24 hours and pour it on an oven plate. The plate is placed in the oven at 150° C for 20-30 minutes or till the compost gets a golden colour.

Desserts

Take the compost out of the oven and cut the nammoura into square pieces. Slice every square horizontally in two halves and fill it with ashta. Spread pistachios over the filled nammoura.

We advise you not to miss this dessert unique only to Baalbeck. Most of the pastry shops in the town offer this exquisitely delicious sweet.


183Nammoura bi ashta

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Maakroun ZallitIngredients: 1 kg of flour, 1 cup of carob molasses, 1 tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of soft mahlab, ½ tbsp carbonate, 1 ½ cups of olive oil. Water to knead the dough. Oil for frying.

Preparation: Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, mahlab, carbonate). Add the oil and the carob molasses. Add the warm water and knead until you obtain a paste. Cover the dough with a clean cloth and leave it to rest for about ½ hour.

Divide the dough into small pieces and give them the shape you prefer. Fry the maakroun in the oil. Remove them when they start having a golden colour and drain them well from the oil. Serve the maakroun cold with carob molasses or warm and plain.


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Maakroun Zallit

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Lazzaqiyeh (Baalbeck pancake) Ingredients: 3 l of water, 1 kg of wheat, 1 cup of milk, 1 tsp of yeast, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 egg, ½ a tsp of salt.

Preparation: Mix the ingredients in a bowl, cover the mixture with a cloth and let it rest for 45 minutes or 1 hour. The mixture is ready to use when foam appears on the surface.

Spread some butter (or margarine) in a pan. Using a big spoon, spread the dough in the pan in order to get a circular shape. Let it bake for 5 minutes then turn it on its other side and proceed for 5 minutes more until the dough takes the form of a loaf of bread. Remove the dough when its colour becomes golden.

Add sugar, butter or chocolate, fruits, jams to the pancake; roll it up into a sandwich and cut it into pieces. The lazzaqiyeh is best eaten when hot. The lazzaqiyeh can be prepared also in a vegetarian version by adding spinach as a filling and closing it in a triangular shape. Bake it for 15 minutes in the oven and your spinach lazzaqiyeh will be ready.

Lazzaqiyeh preparation


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Carob Molasses Halawa Grape JamIngredients: 2 cups of flour, 4 tbsp of margarine, 3 tbsp spoons of carob molasses, 4 tbsp of sugar, small spoon of cinnamon.

Preparation: Toast the flour in a pan and stir until its colour starts changing. Boil aside a cup of water with sugar, carob molasses, cinnamon and margarine. Put the toasted flour in a big bowl and add sugar and carob molasses to the mixture. Wait until the mixture gets cold then knead it in the form of tablets. If you like, you can add walnuts to the carob molasses halawa.

Grape jam is made with white grape from the local region, sugar, water and geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) leaves.

Ingredients: 1 kg grapes, 500 gr. sugar, 100 gr. water.

Preparation: Separate the grapes from the stalks and wash them with water. Prepare a syrup with sugar and water and heat it: when the syrup starts boiling, add the grapes. Let the mixture boil for two hours until the colour of the jam becomes reddish. No stirring is needed in order to keep the grapes whole. Eventually add 1 geranium leaf and keep the jam boiling for one additional minute to transfer the geranium scent. Store the jam in sterilized glass jars.

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Grape Molasses Grape molasses is a brown molasses obtained by a specific local variety of ripe grape called Merweh, the most suitable to prepare molasses.

Preparation: Collect ripe grapes and put them in a bag. Insert the bag in a big metal cylinder with small holes and press with a screw press connected to a wood cover. The squeezed juice should be collected in a copper container. Cook the juice, and just before reaching the boiling point, turn off the fire for 4-5 minutes to cool down the juice. Filter the juice and add natural rock calcium – carbonate to remove the acidity. Eventually put the juice on the fire again and boil it for 3- 4 hours until it becomes thick.

During the boiling phase the juice shall be frequently stirred to oxygenate it and make it get a lighter brown golden colour.

The molasses shall be stored in plastic containers.

To make the grape molasses a long day and many people are needed: to collect the grapes, wash them, extract the juice and stir the product. In many villages this preparation has turned into a ritual: all night long festivals are thus organized to prepare collectively the grape molasses. Grape molasses is served with bread, especially during winter season, as a dip or used to make other types of traditional biscuits.


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Apricot JamApricot jam is prepared with golden thahabi, a variety of apricot from the region.

Preparation: Wash the apricots and remove the stones.

Put the apricots in a container. For each kg of apricots, you shall consider adding 700 gr. of sugar. Leave the apricots for one night in the container in order to release the water. The next day, transfer them in stainless steel

containers and boil them without adding water for 1 ½ hours. Do not stir the jam frequently in order to maintain the apricots whole. When the mixture is still hot, pour it directly in glass jars.

Apricot jam is generally produced in June. This traditional jam has been prepared for more than 50 years due to the huge production in the area and because it is a very good way to preserve apricots for winter time.

Jam selection

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Grape Molasses DrinkIngredients: 3 tbsp of grape molasses, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp orange blossom water

Preparation: Mix the ingredients and adjust according to taste by adding water or grape molasses. Serve cold with or without ice cubes.

Drinks

191Grape molasses drink


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Baalbeck • Culinary glossary

• Ashta: A Lebanese cream, consisting in a mixture of milk, corn starch and sugar boiled and stirred till thick.

• Babaghannouj: Eggplant mashed and mixed with various seasonings.

• Falafel: A deep-fried ball or patty made of ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. They are usually wrapped in bread. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickles, hot sauce, and drizzled with a tahini-based sauce. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a mezzeh.

• Fattoush: A bread salad made of mixed green vegetables topped with toasted or fried pieces of pita bread (khubz ‘arabi). It is traditionally seasoned with pomegranate molasses.

• Hummus: A dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and in some recipe tahini (paste of ground sesame seeds).

• Kafta: Ground meat mixed with herbs and spices.

• Kawarma: Meat cooked and preserved in sheep fat.

• Kebab: Meat cooked on a skewer.

• Kebbeh: Cooked meat balls mixed with burghul.

• Laban: Natural yoghurt.

• Labneh: Yoghurt strained to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yoghurt and cheese, while preserving yoghurt’s distinctive sour taste.

• Ma’amoul: Shortbread pastries traditionally filled with pistachios, dates or walnuts; they have different shapes according to the fillings. They are traditionally prepared at the end of Ramadan or, for Christians, after the Lent period.

• Makdous: Pickled stuffed eggplants.

Culinary glossary

Baalbeck • Culinary glossary

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• Man’ousheh: One of the most popular Lebanese breakfast items. It is baked dough traditionally covered with thyme, cheese, labneh or keshek, some sort of meat etc.

• Mezzeh: A selection of small dishes served in the Mediterranean and Middle East as lunch or dinner. The dishes usually include: Hummus, Babaghannouj, Kebbeh, Labneh, Shanklish, Tabbouleh, Fattoush, etc.

• Shanklish: A type of cow’s milk or sheep milk cheese formed into small balls, often covered in za’atar and pepper, and then aged and dried.

• Shawarma: It is a popular Levantine Arab meat preparation, where meat or chicken are placed on a spit (commonly a vertical spit in restaurants), and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. Although it can be served in

shavings on a plate (generally with accompaniments), “shawarma” also refers to a pita bread sandwich or wrap made with shawarma meat.

• Tabbouleh: Arab salad traditionally made of burghul, tomato and finely chopped parsley and mint, often including onion, seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice and salt.

• Tahini: A typical Middle East product made of ground sesame seeds.

• Za’atar: A mixture of thyme, roasted sesame seeds, sumac, marjoram, oregano.

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Baalbeck • Credits

Funded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Italian Cooperation

Under the patronage of Lebanese Ministry of Tourism

With the support of Baalbeck Municipality

Written by Biladi | Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, Joelle Boutros, Charles Hayek, Roger Sakr

Editing Dr Hassan Nasrallah Dr Hawlo Faraj Dr Khordr Nabha Said Lakkis Anna Dal Maso Lara Daou Paul Gasparini

Credits

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Baalbeck • Credits

Special thanks:

The publication of this guidebook would have not been possible without the strong commitment of Hachem Othman, Mouna Fares and Guido Benevento and without the cooperation of (in alphabetical order) Annalisa Cicerchia, Hussein Fakih, Hawlo Faraj, Massimo Gherardi, Alessandro Guzzo, Ali Jaafar, Said Lakkis, Antoun Maakaroun, Sawsan Mehdi, Agnese Micozzi, Khordr Nabha, Hassan Nasrallah, Alice Pandolfi, Omar Solah and of many others that contributed in different ways to the successful implementation of this project. The generous collaboration of the Baalbeck community shall also be mentioned as an example of the local hospitality and commitment to welcome visitors in this wonderful city.

Design and Layout and illustrations Keybrain design | Nijad Abdelsamad

Photography The pictures included in this publication, wherever not differently mentioned, were taken by:

Marwan Tahtah Bilal Jawish Charles Boutros Nijad Abdelsamad Sobhi Balouk

Printed by Arab Printing Press

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Baalbek • Notes

Notes

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Baalbek • Notes

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Baalbek • Notes

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Baalbek • Notes

Documents

Welcome to Baalbeck