The history of Lebanon is long and rich - every epoch leaving its DNA scattered across a city dubbed 'the Paris of the Middle East', making every road of this small capital a walk through time.
Clock tower at Nijmah Square, Downtown Beirut.
Lebanon's largest city is only 26 square miles and is home to over 2 million people. Yet, it's is so packed with history and culture, it feels a lot bigger and more significant than the modern media make it out to be.
I stayed in a 3-star hotel off the main road in Hamra - Beirut's arty, shopping district. The hotel room was big and comfortable, but there were no international TV channels or double-glazing. The cacophony of city noises could be heard throughout the night, but it made me feel like a nouveau William Burroughs in Tangier (minus the skag).
Hamra looks like it was designed by John Le Carre. It's low-rise apartment blocks sprawled like a Lego city to the Mediterranean coast. A lot lay abandoned, in a 70s time capsule you could walk around. The faded stripes of the balcony awnings and dusty brown aluminium shutters made me feel like I was on the set of a Cold War espionage movie.
What strikes you as you walk around is how liberal this city ripped apart by religious divides is. Women in hijabs are far and few between. Women in hotpants two a penny. While you can't escape the effect of conflict that has dogged Beirut and continues to surround it in Israel and Syria, this is a modern, cosmopolitan, outward-looking city.
One of my favourite spots that perfectly illustrates where Beirut is right now and gives you the space to reflect on how it got there was Dar Bistro & Books. It's exactly what it says on the tin. Here you'll be surrounded by the creme de la creme of Beirut's hipster, artists and intellectuals. I tried my best to fit in, but it's difficult with beetroot hummus around your chops.
It's easy to walk around Beirut, I recommend this as your mode of transport. Losing yourself down alleyways and roads could lead you to French boulevards, Roman baths and Phoenician cities. I highly recommend spending a couple of hours at the neo-classical National Museum of Beirut. It's a treasure trove of sarcophagi, funerary pots, maquettes of amphitheatres and mummies from the 13th Century. With magnificent exhibits dating back to 1 billion BC right through to all world's most powerful empires, from the Egyptians, Romans, Phoenicians, Greeks, Assyrians and Ottomans, right up to the Mamluks, it gives our own British Museum a run for its money.
It's even more inspiring when you learn about the team of people who risked their lives to protect these precious, irreplaceable artefacts from the civil war by wrapping it all up and hiding it. It reopened in 1997 and the Ministry of Culture began work on reclaiming anything that was looted or illegal sold. It's still illegal to own anything from antiquity in Lebanon.
A kiss on both cheeks to the man in the ticket office who sold me a child ticket as I only had 3,000LBP - 2,000LBP short of the adult entrance fee and they don't accept card. He smiled, winked and put his finger on his lips as he handed over varnished ticket.
There are the places most travel guides will recommend you visit. The art-deco clock tower in Nijmah Square (pictured above), the Our Lady of Lebanon, St George's Greek Orthodox Church and Mohammed Al-Amin Mosque (go for the call to prayer, it's intoxicating).
Mohammed Al-Amin Mosque from St George's Church, Beirut.
As well as Beit Beirut and the city that surrounds it, pretty French town of Saifi Village, swanky and impressive Downtown and the hubbub of the Corniche to the north with the bombed-out Holiday Inn are all worth a visit.
Beirut isn't a city where you trawl the landmark with your selfie stick - it's a place the demands you immerse yourself in it. Every enclave with its own personality. Every road imprinted with a piece of history. Every person appreciative of the fragility of life. Therefore you don't visit Beirut, you live it.
Originially published September 28, 2019
