Lebanon: Baalbek's Roman Temples, Byblos, and Beirut's Enduring Spirit

Baalbek (in the Bekaa Valley, 85 kilometers from Beirut) is Lebanon's most magnificent and most irreplaceable attraction — a Roman temple complex of a scale and completeness that surpasses anything in Europe, Italy, or the rest of the Middle East. The site contains three temples: Jupiter (the largest Roman temple ever built, on a 15,000-square-meter podium — the six surviving Corinthian columns are 22 meters high, each column a single piece of granite weighing 100+ tons), Bacchus (the best-preserved Roman temple in the world — more complete than the Athenian Parthenon, its carved stone reliefs of the gods still clearly visible), and Venus (a smaller circular temple of elegant proportion). The foundation stones — the Trilithon, three limestone blocks each weighing approximately 800 tons, moved from a quarry 800 meters away — represent an engineering achievement that has no satisfactory explanation. Note: Baalbek is in the Bekaa Valley, which has been targeted by airstrikes in 2026. Travel here is not possible under current conditions.

Byblos (Jbeil — 40 kilometers north of Beirut on the coast) is the oldest continuously inhabited city on Earth, with 7,000 years of documented settlement. The Phoenicians established it as a major trading port and invented the phonetic alphabet here (approximately 1200 BCE) for recording commercial transactions — the alphabet they traded to Greece along with papyrus, giving the city its name (byblos = papyrus). The compact archaeological site contains Neolithic settlement remains, Phoenician temples, an Egyptian obelisk temple, a Roman colonnaded street, a Crusader castle (one of the finest in Lebanon), and an Ottoman khan, all within walking distance of a working fishing harbor with excellent restaurants.

Beirut — in normal conditions — is one of the most vital and most complex cities in the Middle East: the Hamra neighborhood (the most internationally cosmopolitan, cafés, bookshops, nightlife), Gemmayzeh (the most vibrant bar and restaurant street), Mar Mikhael (the most creative neighborhood, art galleries and boutique restaurants in former industrial spaces), and Downtown Beirut (Solidere — the rebuilt commercial center around Place des Martyrs and the historic souqs). The National Museum of Beirut has the finest archaeological collection in Lebanon, spanning 7,000 years of Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine objects.

Lebanese cuisine is widely recognized as the finest food culture in the Arab world — a Mediterranean-Levantine tradition of extraordinary generosity, precision, and variety. The meze table is the defining Lebanese eating experience: 30 to 40 small dishes arriving in succession (hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, fattoush, kibbeh nayeh, loubieh, mouttabal, samboussek, makanek, and on and on), fresh flatbread baked in-house, olive oil from Lebanon's ancient olive groves, and fresh herbs. No two meze tables are identical — every restaurant, every home, every grandmother has her own versions.

Kibbeh (ground lamb and bulgur wheat formed into torpedoes and fried, or mixed raw as kibbeh nayeh — the Lebanese equivalent of tartare — the most specifically Lebanese dish), fattoush (bread salad with sumac and pomegranate molasses dressing — the most refreshing Lebanese salad), and manoushe (flatbread with za'atar and olive oil, the Lebanese breakfast staple) are the most essential individual dishes. Lebanese pastries (baklawa, knafeh, maamoul) are among the finest in the Arab world.

Lebanese wine: the Bekaa Valley produces some of the finest wine in the Middle East — Château Musar (internationally celebrated, complex and age-worthy, founded 1930 — the wine continued being produced through the entire Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990), Château Ksara (the oldest winery in Lebanon, established 1857 by Jesuit monks), and Domaine Wardy are the most acclaimed producers.