Lebanese Mountains and Tripoli

One of the goals I had while visiting Lebanon was to visit one of the Cedar reserves. The cedar tree has historic and national significance in Lebanon. The cedars of Lebanon are mentioned constantly throughout the bible as a image of strength and prosperity. The cedar tree is included on Lebanon's flag which further demonstrates its important and significance.
We started out our journey early in the morning because it is about two hour drive to the cedar reserve in the north of Lebanon. This is due to the fact that the cedars are on the top of the the Lebanese mountains and you must drive up the mountain to reach it. We first stopped at the Mussaylha Fort near the base of the Lebanese mountains. This fort is a Crusader castle which was built on top of a hill. This area is actually near Batroun, which my Grandma's relatives are from. Both sides of my Mom's family originated from the area of the Lebanese mountains. This area is the historic homeland of the Lebanese Christians and remains a predominately Christian area. I really loved the Lebanese mountains, it is very beautiful with farms built on the hills, old churches and winding roads.
It hadn't occured to me until we started driving that there would be snow on the ground in the mountains. However, when we started getting closer to the cedar reserve it became apparent just how snowy it was at the top of the mountain. When we finally got to the top the area was completely covered in snow, it looked like January in Ohio, but it was really April in Lebanon. This was an interesting realization that you could literally swim in the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut and drive about an hour and go skiing in the Lebanese mountains. We arrived at the Cedar reserve but it was closed, so from the encouragement of some surrounding shop keepers we jumped the fence to the reserve. Once we got in, we were in the middle of hundreds of beautiful and large cedar trees. It was very cold and even started snowing while we were in the reserve. However, it was so very beautiful.
After wards we head down the mountain and visited a town nestled deep in the mountains. It was a monastery which was turned in the museum of Khalil Gibran, who is a famous Lebanese-American poet, most famous for his book The Prophet. This was a very cool museum and the town it overlooks is breathtaking.
Next we left the Lebanese mountains and visited Tripoli which is on the Mediterranean sea, directly north of Beirut. We visited a very large Crusader castle and looked around the town a bit. The town is very very different than Beirut, a completely different vibe. It seemed more urban to me than Beirut, even though Tripoli has a lot less people. I though Tripoli also seemed less globalized and diverse than Beirut, but also less touristy. One interesting thing were the campaign posters which were literally plastered everywhere. Lebanon's election is coming up on June 7th, which should be interesting!
After we left Tripoli we got another large Lebanese dinner and we were all very tired from an amazing Lebanese adventure!

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