Southern Lebanon

Originally my friends and I had intended to travel to Baalbek during our Lebanese adventure, however, my family told us it would be better to go to southern Lebanon. This suprised us because in America we think of southern Lebanon as less safe, but as I have learned here in the Middle East; many of our preconceived notions are wrong! We began our day by visiting Sidon which is about a half hour south of Beirut. This town is a very different atmosphere than northern Lebanon. Some of the things I noticed when we started driving towards Sidon were the different crops grown in the south such as Bananas. Also, there is different political signs in the south than the north.
In Sidon we first visited a Sea Crusader Castle built in 1228. This is the most unusual castle I have ever visited because it is built directly on the Mediterranean sea. I was amazed it has survived all these years while being subject to erosion by the water rushing up on it. After this we walk to an old trade market called Khan El Franj. We then walked around the souqs or markets in Sidon which are world famous for their soap making. This town is known as the hometown of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri who was assassinated about 4 years ago. There are posters of him all over Sidon. I really enjoyed the vibe of Sidon, I like the laid back atmosphere there.
Next we drove to Tyre (Sour) which is deeper south in Lebanon and was the hardest hit of Lebanon during the Israeli war in 2006. We visited two different ruins sites which trace back to the Romans and Byzantines. These ruins are beautiful and well preserved. You can see lots of columns, arches, aqueduct, amphitheater and streets. One set of extensive ruins is right up against the Mediterranean sea. The other site has the worlds largest Roman Hippodrome and is declared a UNESCO world heritage site.
Next we visited Qana which is the site where it is believed Jesus preformed his first miracle, turned water into wine. There is a cave near the site in which it is believed Jesus hide out with several of the twelve disciples to hide from persecution. There are rocks which have carvings of Jesus and the 12 disciples at the site which is historically significant and may further identify this area. This was a very cool spot to see, very humbling to think of the history and religious significance of this area.
Before we left Tyre we got another large Lebanese dinner at a near by restaurant. It was interesting because there were also a large number of French UN troops eating at the same restaurant. The UN troops have been in southern Lebanon since the end of the Israeli war in 2006. It was interesting to see the different UN troops walking through Tyre and to see the different countries they are from.
Overall southern Lebanon was a great experience because I got the chance to see a different side of Lebanon and even go beyond the news article, to see Lebanon for what it really is!

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