Massaya Winery Trip

Vineyards in the Lebanese Mountains

We spent the day at the Massaya Vineyard. We ate more than our fair share of food and drank delicious wine. It was a beautiful setting.

Holiday Weekend - Ramadan Part 2

Ramadan Getaway

Image of what Baalbek orginally looked like

The history of Baalbek dates back around 5000 years^{[citation needed]}.

Excavations near the Jupiter

temple have revealed the existence of ancient human habitation dating to the Early Bronze Age (2900-2300 BC). The Phoenicians settled in Baalbek as early as 2000 BC

and built their first temple dedicated to the God Baal, the Sun God, from whom the city gets its name (taken from Wikipedia)

Baalbeck today

Day 2 - Baalbeck, Lebanon

Our day began with 5 (BLONDE) girls piling in a rental car named, Sunny

It was a drizzly morning as we headed North, up the mountains

The car was small but it got us up the mountains

Until....

A man flagged us down to let us know we had a flat tire

We pulled over

Knew we could change our flat ourselves

A man in a very tiny car pulled over and insisted he change the tire for us - in the Middle Eas

t

women just don't do such things

Us, being 5 independent women from the US were a little annoyed but whatever he can get himself dirty

After tire was put on we tried to thank the guy and push him on his way

We finally start driving and it just doesn't feel right

We pull over at a gas station a 1/4 mile down the road

A nice Lebanese man who lived in the states for a number of years starts swearing

Uh oh, no - he wasn't swearing at us - he was swearing at the idiot who put our spare tire on

Apparently the idiot put the lug nuts on backwards - is that even possible???

Then the man looked at our other front tire and said it was completely bald and we should not b

e driving on it

He decided to put the spare tire on in place of the bald tire

And took the flat tire and pounded and pounded until there wasn't pressure on the tire and filled it up again

Then he swore some more and told us the guy that rented this car should burn in hell

or something like that

So off we went

The spare tire on the drivers side

The semi-repaired tire on the passengers side

The nice man wouldn't take money from us

He only wanted to make sure we emailed him the picture we took of him with all of us

A few pictures of the tire incident(s)

The guy in the black shirt is the idiot

The guy in the white shirt is the nice one who helped us out

***Check out the video to see how hard he worked

And finally we arrived in Baalbek

Town of Baalbek

I have been to Rome and seen the Colosseum

I have been to Tikal and seen the Mayan Ruins

And now I have seen the largest Roman Ruins that exist

Scooter, Abby, and Amy on the top floor of a restaurant that overlooks the ruins

Refugee camp on the way to baalbek

Megan getting wrapped

Graffiti on the ruins from the late 1800s

This picture shows how during the crusades the crusaders took the pillars and used them to build their castles

History about Baalbek

Situated atop a high point in the fertile Bekaa valley, the ruins are one of the most extraordinary and enigmatic holy places of ancient times. Long before the Romans conquered the site and built their enormous temple of Jupiter, long even before the Phoenicians constructed a temple to the god Baal, there stood at Baalbek the largest stone block construction found in the entire world.

the history of Baalbek reaches back approximately 5000 years. Excavations beneath the Great Court of the Temple of Jupiter have uncovered traces of settlements dating to the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1600 BC) built on top of an older level of human habitation dating to the Early Bronze Age (2900-2300 BC). Biblical passages (I Kings, IX: 17-19) mention the name of King Solomon in connection with a place that may be ancient Baalbek (“And Solomon built Gezer and Beth-Horon, the lower, and Baalath and Tadmor in the wilderness”), but most scholars are hesitant to equate this Baalath with Baalbek and therefore deny any connection between Solomon and the ruins. Because the great stones of Baalbek are similar, though far larger, than the stones of the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, archaic myths had arisen that Solomon erected both structures. If Solomon had really erected the site of Baalbek, however, it is astonishing that the Old Testament has mentioned nothing of the matter.

(http://www.sacredsites.com/middle_east/lebanon/baalbek.htm)

More from Wikipedia

When Alexander the Great conquered the Near East in 334 BC, Baalbek was renamed Heliopolis, Helios Greek for sun and Polis Greek for city. The city retained its religious function during Greco-Roman times, when the sanctuary of the Heliopolitan Jupiter-Baal was a pilgrimage site. Trajan's biographer records that the Emperor consulted the oracle there. Trajan inquired of the Heliopolitan Jupiter whether he would return alive from his wars against the Parthians. In reply, the god presented him with a vine shoot cut into pieces. Theodosius Macrobius, a Latin grammarian of the 5th century AD, mentioned Zeus Heliopolitanus and the temple, a place of oracular divination. Starting in the last quarter of the 1st century BC and over a period of two centuries, the Romans had built a temple complex in Baalbek consisting of three temples: Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. On a nearby hill, they built a fourth temple dedicated to Mercury.

Dogs in the Middle East

Having a dog in the Middle East has been a cultural experience for me. When I decided to move to Lebanon I knew that dogs were not well liked... this did not prepare me for the mixed reactions I would receive when Moza and I walk down the street.

First and foremost for those of you who don't know my dog, Moza here is a little description of her - she doesn't bark, she is a small German Shepherd, if you approach her she rolls onto her back so you can rub her belly... I'm not exaggerating - no, she is not a perfect dog she has her issues too but as far as kindness she is all heart.

The area I live in (Hamra) is one of the best areas in Beirut for dogs because it has a high concentration of expats and Christians. That being said I feel most at ease walking around Hamra.

I have had very few instances where people have been rude to me because I am walking a dog but there are still the random instances where I am reminded I am no longer in America.

Here is a brief synopsis of my encounters:

• When my boxes came in the man who was helping me was carrying my 70lb. box over his shoulder and when I opened the door to my apartment and he saw Moza he jumped and screamed out of the doorway. This was a little comical to me because Moza was laying on her doggy bed. I am always surprised when a strong, healthy man is scared of Moza.

• I was walking on the Corniche (boardwalk along the Mediterranean) and I paused in front of the famous Pigeon rock. A tour bus pulled up to take pictures of Pigeon Rock - the tourists in this bus were from Egypt. Instead of taking pictures of Pigeon Rock they all gawked and awed over Moza and before I knew it I had snapped 30+pictures of people posing with my dog. Hmmm, I think now that perhaps I should have charged them, I could've made a decent penny.

• Today I was walking down the street and 2 people stopped me to ask if they could breed my dog. Not that unusual but they were driving and when they stopped they held up traffic for a good 5 minutes. With Lebanese driving you can imagine the loud honking that was happening.

• If not on a daily basis at least every other day I am stopped on the street by a random person hugging Moza or a small child getting up the courage to pet her - usually met by squeals of delight. What is so strange about this is that it has never happened to Adam while walking Moza. We have realized I am treated very differently because I am female. I get treated more positively and Adam sees the more negative side of dogs in Lebanon.

• I often take Moza for walks on the Corniche (boardwalk along the water). A 2km stroll might take me 30 minutes because I am constantly stopped by kids and families. They are so curious about this large, friendly dog. I always take the opportunity to let them pet her and give her kisses - I feel I am doing my own little part in helping Beirut become dog friendly.

I was curious why so many people from the Middle East are anti-dogs - here are a few statements I found on the internet. Now as you read these please understand these are not facts they are people's opinions - some people are positive and others are blatantly naive.

"Because dogs are American, and they hate our freedoms. They're evildoers, and hate everything good, including little Barney."

The Koran says, Dogs may be kept in the house for;

a) Personal Protection
b) Hunting
c) (something else which i forgot)

They may not be kept as pets as farishteh (angels) will not visit a house which has dogs among many many other things.

On the stance of cleanliness, anything out of a dog's mouth is deemed unclean, ultimately dogs are known to lick themselves and as a result you can never be sure. The advice given is, you are allowed to touch a dog, stroke it or whatever as long as you clean up afterwards because you are considered unclean and unfit for namaaz if you don't.

Now, the fear thing, it's not hate, it's fear. This isn't a muslim thing, it's a specific race, mainly southern asian. Most asians haven't grown up with dogs, neither have their relatives or friends sooooo, that's why they are scared of them, a joke i heard once titled 100 things to tell you're asian had "Your family will run a marathon if they see a dog walking calmly on the other side of the road".