Nothing too serious. Not a travel guide. Just a forthright, lighthearted travelogue recounting my experiences and observations during a month of spontaneous backpacking around this little-understood and often-misunderstood Middle-Eastern country.
We arrived in Lebanon with my partner in mid-summer 2023. The first few days that we spent in the capital city of Beirut comprised some casual sightseeing, a fluky techno party in a clandestine squat, and preparations for our imminent expedition…
What better thing to do amidst an excruciating heatwave than to go trekking? During ten days of sweating like fountains, we walked 150+ km over the parched, rugged, desolate, yet stunning Lebanese mountains. Camping every night wherever we found water and flat ground, we traversed some of Lebanon’s most spectacular landscapes and discovered some of its most remarkable cultural wonders, ranging from ancient temples to medieval villages and monasteries. We were also planning a side-excursion to the country’s highest summit, Qurnat as Sawda. But that proved unfeasible because Christian and Muslim villagers were shooting at each other in the area over a disputed water source. Regarding their attitude toward us, all the locals we met were exceptionally friendly and helpful. The only danger we faced was posed by a naughty boar that nearly smashed my spine one evening.
Our trek concluded in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, where I bid a temporary farewell to my partner. She had to go back to work. I had a couple more weeks to keep exploring this intriguing country on my own. For this second, solitary half of this adventure, I traveled around Lebanon by public transport; to wit, crammed, stuffy, rickety minivans you stop along the main roads and take you anywhere for next to nothing. Staving off the drivers’ invariable ripoff attempts, arguing with them in mutually unintelligible tongues, I reached diverse parts of the country, along the bustling coast and in the remote Beqaa Valley at the threshold of Syria.
These were: Batroun, Lebanon’s principal beach resort town that resembled Ibiza more than the Middle East; Byblos, one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and home of a renowned archeological site; Baalbeck, one of antiquity’s most sacred cities and present-day stronghold of Hezbollah in northern Lebanon where grand pagan temples co-exist with militant mosques; Anjar, a small town hosting ruins of an early Umayyad city and a population of descendants of genocide-fleeing Armenians; Tyre, another primeval Phoenician city and Hezbollah’s hub near the Israeli border; and Sidon, Lebanon’s third largest city.
Before this trip, my notion of Lebanon consisted of little more than conflict, economic crisis, hummus, and kebab. After this month of acquainting myself firsthand with the country and breaking free from biases associated with it—my primary purpose for traveling—I gained a whole new, richer conception of this fascinating land, its deep history, and contemporary reality. It is this understanding that I aim to convey through this aspiringly creative and entertaining narrative.
