Walks in the Wilderness

One of our favorite weekend activities is to get out of the chaos of Beirut and into the Lebanese countryside. Here is a quick explanation about why taking a hike in the Lebanese wilderness is extra special:

• You go from the Mediterranean Sea to the mountains in just 20 miles.

Here's Wade on the coastal rocks just south of Beirut. If you keep going in the direction Wade's looking you'll eventually bump into Italy.

Just an hour's drive away from where Wade was and you are here, in the mountains of the Metn district. If you look carefully at the horizon above Megan's head, you can see the Mediterranean Sea.

Where Megan is standing is approximately 3,900 feet above sea level (as a comparison, Cashiers, NC is about 3,400 feet above sea level).

• The Roman ruins!

It seems like each hike that we go on passes by a Roman temple.

Back home we'd get arrested for standing on Civil War trenches that are pushing 150 years old. Here Megan is, standing on a Roman temple that is about 2,000 years old.

• The ancient sites that everyone seems clueless about.

According to our guide, this man-made cave is a pre-historic tomb, or maybe a Phoenician tomb, or it's burial place for the people who built the nearby Roman temple, or it's a Maronite Christian wine cellar dating from the Ottoman period... He basically had no idea what it was, nor does anybody else.

Here's Wade with the guide coming out of an ancient tomb. At least with this site we know it was a burial place, complete with carved out holes for candles. About twenty years ago a Lebanese politician stole three mummies from this tomb, and he did it without much archeological care. With the theft, the Lebanese lost a lot of information about who built this and who was buried here.

• The dramatic changes in topography and vegetation.

Just a few miles away from a pine forest, you might find yourself on top of a mountain that feels like a desert.

Here are some local guys who we stumbled upon. They were taking a break from harvesting pine-nuts, using the horses to carry their loads back down to the nearest road.

• Meeting people.

The hikes that we have been going on are organized and led by several different outdoor adventure-type companies. The fun part is that it gives us an opportunity to meet some really interesting people -- native Beirutis who want to get out of the city as well as expats from all over the world. This shot gives you an idea about how many people can be in a hiking group.

Here's Wade talking to a German expat who was reminiscing about where he was when the Berlin wall came down twenty years ago.

• The views.

(We've uploaded these photos in a higher quality - just click on them to see the full-sized versions.)

Megan, looking down on the Bekaa Valley.