Harissa, a statue of Our Lady of Lebanon with her arms outspread over Jounieh Bay, is one of the country’s most renowned manmade landmarks. In fact, When the Patriarach Elias Hoyek and Mgr Carlos Duval, the Apostolic Delegate in Lebanon, decided to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Immaculate Conception dogma declared on the 8th of December 1854, they both formed the project of setting up a statue of the Virgin on the hill of Harissa. The statue was made in Lyon; it is of bronze covered with white paint and of 8 meters and a half long. The statue arrived to Beirut in 1906 on board of a big ship.
1- Compagnonnage, network for on-the-job transmission of knowledge and identities. (france)
The French Compagnonnage system is a unique way of conveying knowledge and know-how linked to the trades that work with stone, wood, metal, leather, textiles and food. Its originality lies in its synthesis of varied methods and processes of transmitting knowledge: national and international educational travel
2-Human towers (spain)
Castells are human towers built by members of amateur groups, usually as part of annual festivities in Catalonian towns and cities. The traditional setting is the square in front of the town hall balcony. The human towers are formed by castellers standing on the shoulders of one another in a succession of stages (between six and ten). Each level of the tronc, the name given to the second level upwards, generally comprises two to five heavier built men supporting younger, lighter-weight boys or girls.
3- The Mediterranean diet (spain, greece, italy, morocco)
The Mediterranean diet constitutes a set of skills, knowledge, practices and traditions ranging from the landscape to the table, including the crops, harvesting, fishing, conservation, processing, preparation and, particularly, consumption of food.
4-Chinese calligraphy (china)
Chinese calligraphy has always been more than simply a tool for communication, incorporating as it does the element of artistry for which the practice is still valued in an age of ballpoint pens and computers.
5-The Arts of the Meddah, Public Storytellers (turkey)
Meddahlik was a Turkish theatre form performed by a single storyteller called a meddah and practised throughout Turkey and Turkishspeaking countries. Through the ages, similar narrative genres have flourished due to interaction among the peoples of Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East within this wide geographical area.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
