An
Archaeological Study Tour
Ancient Lebanon
September 30 - October 12, 2012
13 Days
Led by Dr. Joseph Greene, Semitic Museum, Harvard University
Lebanon, traditional homeland of the Phoenicians, lies at a crossroads, where maritime routes and overland roads connect deserts and plains with mountains and the sea. In antiquity Lebanon was famous for its cedar forests, its fine wines, and for the far-flung commerce of the Phoenicians, who colonized the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean. Beirut, the modern capital, along with Tyre, Sidon, Tripoli, and Byblos, were all ancient seaports whose names were recorded in Egyptian papyrii, Assyrian annals, and the Old Testament. Visiting each in turn, we will discover how their archaeological remains attest to the traffic of merchants and the march of armies through Lebanon, from the Bronze and Iron Ages to Classical Antiquity, from the coming of Islam to the era of the Crusades, from the Ottomans to the French Mandate. Leaving the coast we will climb into the mountains to visit the best preserved and last remaining stands of cedars in the country. In the past such cedars were sought by Egyptian pharaohs to build the sacred boats found buried near the Pyramids and by King Solomon to build the Temple in Jerusalem. From the mountains, we will descend into the agricultural heartland of Lebanon, the Biqa Valley, 3,300-feet high and enclosed east and west by the soaring ranges of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains. In the Biqa we will visit one of its wineries, which boast, as they have since antiquity, the finest vintages in the region. Our tour concludes with visits to the early Islamic city of Anjar and the magnificently preserved Roman-era temple complex of Baalbek.
Sunday,
Monday, September 30 & October 1: BEIRUT:
Independent departures from our home cities on Sunday
arriving into Beirut Monday evening.
We will transfer to the Le Gray Hotel,
a beautiful new hotel selected for it wonderful location
in the heart of downtown just steps away from restaurants,
shops and the corniche.
Tuesday, October
2: BEIRUT: This morning we will gather for
our opening lecture. We will then spend the remainder
of the morning at the National Museum,
reopened in 1999 after suffering grievously during
Lebanon’s civil war. The museum now displays
a fabulous collection of archaeological artifacts
dating from prehistory to the Ottoman period. After
lunch our touring will continue at the Audi
Museum to see its wonderful mosaic collection.
This evening we will meet for dinner at one of Beirut’s
fine restaurants.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner
Wednesday, October 3: BEIRUT: This exciting day takes us south of Beirut to the Phoenician Temple of Eshmun and the ruins of Hellenistic temples and Roman colonnaded streets. Our next stop will be Tyre (Sour). Although the city was founded around 2750 BCE, its golden age began in the 10th century BCE when, under King Hiram I and his successors, it became the most important trading center of all Phoenicia. Tyre’s period of ascendancy ended after a 13-year siege by the Neo-Babylonians, but the city continued into the Roman era and regained importance when the Byzantines made it the seat of an archbishopric. The sites we shall visit are mainly from the Greek and Roman era but include a huge necropolis with funerary monuments dating back to the Phoenicians. Lastly, we will visit Sidon. Unlike Tyre, nothing remains from Sidon’s Phoenician and Roman past. The sites we will visit include a Crusader castle built to defend the harbor and the older Bab al-Saray Mosque (providing non-Muslims are admitted today), the Debbane Palace, built in 1721 as a family residence, and the old covered souk. We will have free time to explore the souk and to visit the famous Khan al-Franj, a beautifully restored khan built in the 17th century, and the Soap Museum.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch
Thursday, October 4: BEIRUT: The morning begins at the American University Archaeological Museum and the Geological Museum within the same building. Then we will continue to the archaeological excavations adjacent to our hotel and the Zawiye Ibn Iraq Mohammed al-Amin and Omari Mosques and St. George Cathedral. After lunch we will visit the Kantari Museum. The remainder of the day is at leisure to explore the city on our own.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch
Friday, October 5: CEDARS: We depart for Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River). The cliff that faces this river is the site of a number of stelae and commemorative inscriptions celebrating successful crossings of the river. The earliest, left by Ramses II, dates from the 13th century BCE, and the latest, by Christian Phalange militias during the recent civil war. We then drive north along the coast to Bcharre. We will spend the remainder of the morning visiting the Kadisha Valley, famed for its charming old villages of Ottoman houses and as the heartland of the Maronite Christian community. We will visit one of the more accessible monasteries and hermit caves. After lunch we will visit the Gibran Museum and walk in a reserve of ancient Cedar trees. Le Cedrus Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner
Saturday, October 6: BYBLOS: We drive back to the coast to visit the medieval center of Tripoli. Here we will find a wealth of Mameluk and Ottoman monuments, beginning with St. Gilles Citadel, perched above the old city. This formidable castle was originally built by the Crusaders. Touring continues at the Great Mosque, built reusing elements of the earlier Crusader cathedral, including the bell tower. We will visit some of the lovely madrassas that surround the mosque as well as beautiful Taynal Mosque (1326-33). As we explore the city’s maze of souks, including the Khan al-Saboun (soap khan), we will stop to examine several madrassas’ wonderful facades. We will also visit the interesting Khan al-Khayattin, or tailors’ souk, and much more before leaving Tripoli. We will arrive at our new seaside hotel in time for a stroll through the port before dinner. Byblos Sur Mer Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner
Sunday, October 7: BYBLOS: The morning
we will visit ancient Byblos, which
has had a long history, accounting for the interesting
variety of its monuments. By the third millennium
BCE Byblos had become a major trading center and a
conduit for goods and ideas. Occupation by the Amorites
brought the first Canaanite culture, as evidenced
in the “obelisk” temple,
which we will see. Subsequent invasions by the Hyskos,
Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Persians,
Greeks and Romans make our visit to this site very
exciting. With so many layers of settlement in a relatively
small area, archaeologists had to move the later monuments
in order to excavate the older monuments. Unraveling
this site will take us the full morning. After some
free time to explore the town and have lunch, we will
drive into the mountains to visit the Jeita
Grotto, which contains one of the largest
collections of stalactites and stalagmites in the
world, and end our day at the lovely temples at
Faqra.
Meals: Breakfast & dinner
Monday, October
8: ZAHLE: After a morning at leisure we depart
for the Umayyad ruins at Anjar. Although
the construction is entirely Islamic, a great deal
of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine materials were
reused. The afternoon is completed with a winery
tour and tasting of some of the region’s
famous wines. Our day ends at the Grand Hotel
Kadri in Zahle on the banks of the Bardouni
River.
Meals: Breakfast lunch & dinner
Tuesday, October 9: ZAHLE: Touring begins with a visit to Niha, an impressive Roman temple complex. The main temple is dedicated to the Syro-Phoenician god Hadaranus. Next is Qasr Neba, another large Roman temple with its main staircase carved from monolithic blocks. The temple was built over an earlier, perhaps Bronze Age, rock-cut cemetery, still visible within the temple precinct. After lunch we will visit Baalbek, a fabulously preserved Roman temple complex whose buildings are largely intact and richly decorated. We will have as much time as we need to explore the site and its museum. We will also stop at the quarry that supplied the enormous building stones for the city.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch
Wednesday, October 10: BEIRUT: Our final morning of touring brings us to Beiteddine, and Deir el-Qamar, the former capital during the 16th-century rule of Emir Fakhr ud-Din II. The 17th and 18th century buildings around the main square make for a picturesque stop. At Beiteddine we will see a restored palace, which now houses an impressive collection of mosaics brought from various sites throughout Lebanon, The majority come from a fifth/sixth-century Byzantine church excavated at Jiyyeh. We then return to Beirut with time to relax before our gala farewell dinner at one of the city’s fine restaurants. Le Gray Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast & dinner
Thursday, October
11: BEIRUT: Today
will be completely at leisure to revisit the museum
and wander in this lovely city.
Meals: Breakfast
Friday, October 12: We have arranged several transfers to the airport for our flights home.
Meals: Breakfast
