Last year we traveled to Lebanon and visited some amazing places. We met fascinating people and generally had a very good time. Pour yourself a drink and sit back and listen to this story.
Lebanon is a very ancient civilization with a long history that predates most religions that we know of today.
In this video we meet Pierre Karam a descendant of a very innovative and popular priest of the village. Father Nimatulla Karam
Pierre discusses his heritage home in Tannourine and how it came to be built. Pierre shows us some of the antique texts, furniture and artifacts.
An ancient text
Pierre speaks 9 different languages, one of which is Aramaic. The language of the region in pre-biblical times and of Jesus Christ. He translates several inscriptions, strange symbols and written texts, into English.
Strange symbols
Here he talks about his ancestors, the silk makers who came to the region and transformed the local economy by teaching people how to grow and manufacture silk products.
Listen to the ancient Aramaic language at 20 minutes into the video
Portrait of Father Karam by a local artist
I am not at all religious but it was an interesting story and thought that it should be recorded for posterity.
Photos of Tannourine in Mount Lebanon
Lebanon is mountainous and Mount Lebanon stretches along the backbone of the country
The church built by Father Karam and the local community still stands in the centre of town
Typical street scene on Mount Lebanon
These terraces where built 1000's of years ago to grow crops. The soil is very fertile and all sorts of fruit and vegetables are grown here. Olives, grapes, carrots and plums. Just about anything you can think of grows here. Many villagers are self sufficient and pickle or smoke their produce to make it last. They have to. They can get snowed in for many months.
Looking down into the valley at Tannourine
We found this open air church in the Cedars of God forest just a few miles away
Hope you enjoy these little trips to Lebanon
Baalbek Lebanon Mystery
Cedars of Lebanon
Oldest Olive trees in the world
Looks like the civilization with realy unique history and lifestyle . I am also not very religious, but it would be interesting to visit this place))very interesting.. will follow you for more interesting stories)) good luck
Lebanon is what they call a secular society. It has many religions. I'm more interested in the ancient history of the country. There are some fantastic Roman ruins at Baalbek that I filmed last year too. I'll post them here if you'd like to see it. It's spectacular.
Yes, it would be interesting for me! I will be waiting) thank you very much
They are magnificent and well worth a look.
Tip!@christina.red thanks for following. I will be posting more of my travels around Lebanon's historic sites.
It looks as if you are incredibly good at immersing yourself in different cultures when you travel! Great post, it is bizarre to think that Lebanon gets snow - I always imagine it incredibly hot!
Lebanon has an amazing climate. You can be on a sun drenched beach in the morning and go skiing in the mountains in the afternoon. It is brilliant.
Even Amman gets snow too.
Dear @molometer congratulations for your trip to lebanon I think lebanon is a Muslim country or not.I am Tourist and travel many countries this time I am in Iran Nice to meet you at your great article.thanks for sharing your experience with steemians.my English is very poor hope you understand.thank you very much.
Your English seems pretty good to me Rashid. Lebanon has many religions and they all live happily together.
Great
And thanks for your reply
Lebanon's constitution requires that the head of state be a Maronite Christian, so by this we could consider it to be a form of state imposed Christian rule. But the majority of Lebanese are Muslims. The constitution however, like that in almost all Middle Eastern countries was imposed by the British/French during the colonialist carve up known as the Sykes-Picot agreement.
What you say is all true to the best of my understanding. They have a power sharing constitution now which includes all faith's. They have just gone 2 years without a Prime Minister because they couldn't agree who is should be apparently?
Actually they have gone 2 years without a President because the parliament members couldn't "agree" on who to vote for...
Makes one wonder if they need a president if they can go two years without one? Don't you think?
yeah agreed
You wrote a very detailed post on your trip to Lebanon with wonderful pictures of the life there. It is always nice seeing other cultures and having a better understanding and appreciation for others. Your travels have really given you a greater perspective. As I said before, I will write a post on social media and its good and bad influence on people. Sometimes it can be harmful. Have a good week ahead.
cool
Lebanon is an interesting place that is not considered a travel destination for most.
That is an understatement of epic proportions.
Lebanon has got a bad press in general. Propaganda!
The Lebanese people are wonderful and very welcoming.
They are supporting over 1 million refugees from war zones with virtually no help from anyone?
Tourism from non Lebanese is almost non existent.
We have a family connection in country otherwise I doubt we would have ventured there either.
Thanks for the comment Craig. Hopefully these posts may help to show Lebanon in a different light.
What a fascinating part of the world, I would love to visit Lebanon. Thank you for posting, I've followed you.
Lebanon is well worth a visit. In the meantime you may enjoy my posts on this amazing cultures historic places. Coming soon.Thank you @inseasia for following and for leaving your comment.
I love how you met the people where they live, and listened to their history. The video had an Anthony Bourdain feel to it. I enjoyed it.
Sounds like a trip of a lifetime. I love visiting the Middle East, one of the richest locations in the world for humanity's history.
I'd also love to visit a place where Aramaic is spoken natively, although I think there's only a very few places in Syria and Iraq where this is the case. It won't be long before this language is extinct, and will only be known to us through books and liturgical usage in churches.
Lovely post!
The middle east does indeed have many marvelous and beautiful cultures that we can and should learn from.
According to my research Aramaic is spoken by approximately 200,000 people in the regions that you mentioned so you may be right as to it going extinct but these things are never set in stone.
Latin was once considered a long dead language but it is having a bit of a revival at least in the UK. Where it is being taught once again in some schools?
Gaelic (Irish) was almost obliterated by the colonial rule of the British but held on in some remote and rural locations. It too is being revived and taught in Irish schools again.
The culture of a people is conveyed through language as well as food, art and music etc. Suppress the language and you suppress the culture.
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Thanks @barrydutton why not just report them to @sherlockholmes that would be very helpful.