Anjar

(34.00 N 36.00 E)

The city of Anjar was founded by Caliph Walid I at the beginning of the 8th century.The town Anjaar takes its name from the Arabic term "Ayn Al-Jaar," or "water from the rock," and is known for the streams that flow from the nearby mountains. It is a unique city in several ways. Anjaar is the only set of Omayaad ruins in Lebanon, and there were no artifacts at Anjaar of the many other societies that inhabited the Bekka Valley before them.

Baalbek

(34.00 N 36.20 E)

Known in ancient times as Heliopolis, greek for "city of the sun", the modern name may be connected with the ancient Canaanite god Baal. The ruins of the ancient town are centered around the acropolis which incorporates the Temple of Jupiter (which took 200 years to complete) and the Temple of Bacchus, which was erected around 150 AD. Both temples were dedicated to the Heliopolitan triad - Hadal, the Syrian God of Thunder, Atorgatis, the Syrian Goddess of Nature, and a youthful god who was a protector of crops. These ruins are an important relic of the so called pagan cults of the time.

Byblos

(34.13 N 35.63 E)

Byblos is said to be the oldest inhabited city in the world, the source of the first Phoenician letters that gave us our alphabet. Byblos was the major seaport of the east Mediterranean during the 3rd millenium BC. The ruins include the perimeter walls, the Temple of Baalat-Gebal (the goddess of the city), the Temple of the Gbelisks and the royal tombs. There are also ruins dating from Roman times and the crusader castle and church.

Tyre

(33.27 N 35.20 E)

Five Millennia of History 

Founded at the start of the third millennium BC, Tyre originally consisted of a mainland settlement and a modest island city that lay a short distance off shore. But it was not until the first millennium BC that the city experienced its golden age. In the 10th Century BC Hiram, King of Tyre, joined two islets by landfill. Later he extended the city further by reclaiming a considerable area from the sea.

Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab)

(34.28 N 36.00 E)

The best-known cedar is the cedar of Lebanon, mentioned often in the Old Testament; the First Temple of Solomon was built of this wood.

One of the deepest and most beautiful valleys in Lebanon, is indeed a world apart. At the bottom of this wild-sided gorge runs the Qadisha River whose source is in the Qadisha River at the foot of the Cedars. And above the famous Cedar grove stands Qornet es Sawda, Lebanon's highest peak.