Touring Downtown

We finished new teacher orientation on Thursday night with a walking tour of Beirut's rebuilt downtown.  During the civil war, downtown Beirut became a no-man's-land, stuck between the largely-Christian eastern side of the city and the largely-Muslim western half.  As a result of shelling, mortar fire, and snipers, buildings dating back to the Byzantine era were destroyed.  After the civil war ended, city leaders decided to excavate before rebuilding the city and, in some cases, discovered layers of history beneath already-old buildings and rubble.  After archeological research concluded, they rebuilt the downtown almost exactly from the old city layout.  The result:  beautiful, architechturally-interesting, well-built stone buildings copying the varied styles of old Beirut - Ottoman, French, etc.  But, for now, it still feels a bit like Disneyworld.  It's all very new, and large swaths are quite empty - no cars can drive through, and people are only recently flocking to the area for restaurants and social life.

Yes, the clock tower at the center of the new downtown is sponsored by Rolex.  And if you're looking very closely, you'll see a camouflaged army guy toting a machine gun. 

Speaking of security, the barbed wire and guards surrounding the government office (in an old Ottoman building) were fairly intense.  We broke the law by taking this photo.

Roman ruins - they just crop up randomly in empty lots.

Roman baths outside the government offices - there would have been a raised floor above the small columns you see, and heat from the ovens around the edges would have heated the raised floor of the baths.

This is a relatively new mosque, and one of the largest in Beirut.  It was rebuilt by gazillionaire-turned prime minister-turned martyr Rafik Hariri in the 1990s.  There are yet more Roman ruins in the foreground.

Inside the mosque pictured above.  Meg's sundress wasn't up to snuff, so they provided her with something more appropriate.  Wade's t-shirt was just fine.  This was the first mosque either of us had ever visited, and everybody was very friendly.  It's on a massive scale, comparable to the National Cathedral in DC.

Downtown is full of mosques and churches - this is a common view, with the church, the mosque, the flag, the Mediterranean, and lots of new buildings squashed together.

Inside an Orthodox church downtown - they've discovered the ruins of 4 or 5 older churches beneath its floors.  After the civil war, they chose not to restore a few of the old painted walls.  Instead, they left the scars from the bullet holes (visible in photo above).  Apparently, civil war militias commonly walked into their enemies' places of worship for vengeful target practice.

Inside Rafik Hariri's tent/mausoleum/shrine.  Hariri was assassinated in 2005 just a few blocks from our apartment, and his assassination sparked a major political movement that led to Syria's exit from Lebanon.  His tomb is covered with fresh flowers that are probably replaced daily, and his photo shines down from every wall in the tent.  And yes, the floor is covered with oh-so-classy Astroturf.

Martyrs Square, adjacent to downtown and right next to Hariri's tomb/tent.  The statue was erected as a monument to 30+ Lebanese martyrs executed during WWI by the Ottomans.

Bullet holes still riddle the statue in Martyrs Square, which was in the middle of some of the most intense fighting of the civil war.