Lebanon is a pretty small country, and for that reason it’s easier just to base yourself in Beirut, which is right in the middle, and do day trips from there, so that’s exactly what I did. After exploring the city itself and some of the interior I spent the rest of my time exploring some of the historic towns along the coast, a coastline of which every inch is developed and inhabited. There’s really no clear division from one town to the next from what I can tell, but it is a beautiful coastline. Lebanon definitely got some choice real estate.

First the town of Byblos just a bit north of Beirut. Byblos is possibly the oldest town in Lebanon. It was inhabited long before Beirut and was a very important port town for the Phoenicians and later, the Romans. Some of the most important Phoenician tombs were found here and most of the artifacts are now in the National Museum in Beirut. They also have a crusader era castle and a couple of ancient temples. The castle was pretty cool, but to be honest the rest of the ruins were not that impressive. The sea views however were great from the pint sized replica of the Roman theatre that used to be here. Later, the bus ride from Byblos back to Beirut was even more frightening than my ride from the airport several days ago. If you’ve ever wanted to ride in a bus being driven like a formula one race car, then Lebanon is the place for you.

See more pics from Byblos here

Further north, sleepy Batroun was also a very important port town for the Phoenicians. Today it’s a very quiet peaceful community built out of coral stone. They have the remains of a Phoenician sea wall that was built so they could quarry the stones along the shore. It’s not that impressive either and if you didn’t know it was man made you would probably mistake it for natural, but again the sea views were amazing. In modern times, Batroun is famous for lemonade, due to all the citrus groves nearby. After strolling around, that frozen Batroun lemonade really hit the spot.

All the pics from Batroun are right here

My final day in Lebanon I visited two cities south of Beirut. In the morning I went all the way to Tyre. It’s where the Lebanese go to enjoy a day or weekend on the beach (that’s Tyre in the pic at the top of the post). It’s definitely a touristy seaside kind of town with sandy beaches, lots of sea food shacks, and lots of manned military bunkers complete with tanks and 50cal machine guns. They also have some impressive Roman ruins. An incredibly large necropolis with hundreds of sarcophagi, many with the bones of the dead still resting comfortably inside, a Roman road with a Hadrian era gate, a road made of mosaics, and the remains of a hippodrome that seated 20,000 people!

Pics from Tyre below and here

After Tyre, I stopped enroute back to Beirut in Saida to see their crusader castle, which sits on a small island off shore connected by a stone causeway. The castle is pretty small, but it looks like it was constructed partially by repurposed Roman columns and you can see more columns in the water all around. I also spent some time wandering around the tiny winding market streets and had the best and biggest falafel sandwich yet. It was delicious!

More pics from Saida are here

And that is gonna wrap up this middle eastern adventure for now. Lebanon has been an interesting stop, but I’m tired. Tomorrow morning I’m on a plane heading back home. Look out for the next adventure coming in February.