South Lebanon

I got the bus South of Beirut into the Muslim-dominated part of the country to the town of Sidon (known as Saida by the locals). This charming town has a beautiful old town, much of which contains a very photogenic market, and the parts outside the market are equally photogenic. Selling everything from gold jewellery to colourful dusters the market is a friendly bustling place to wander for about an hour.

Then I headed down to the delightful 13th Century Crusader sea castle with columns built into the walls, joined to the mainland by an 80m fortified stone causeway. There were very nice views across the port, the old city and even the new city. After exploring the castle I wandered around the port for a while, which while certainly not pretty in a conventional sense was interesting enough and made for some nice pictures. I had some lunch in a pizzeria opposite the waterfront and then got the bus further south to Tyr (known as Sour by the locals).

Tyr is a Muslim-dominated port town that suffered heavily from the wars with Israel. Its history however dates back to the 3rd millennium BC and many of the ancient ruins remain – colonnaded roads, mosaics, a Roman bathhouse, a Crusader castle and a hippodrome. Perhaps it was ruin fatigue on my part but while the history of the site was very interesting I found it hard to get excited about the site itself. Perhaps I need an independent (non-ruin-fatigued) opinion on Tyr. That said the market area was quite nice though not as interesting or active as Saida’s. All the journey here and back you see posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbolah leader, a reminder that things in Lebanon are not always as normal as they seem.

Tomorrow I will visit Biblos, one of the most famous sites of the whole of Lebanon, second only to Baalbek.

- David