Lebanon Archives - Page 11 of 11

Weekend Roundup

There are reports of bulldozer work being carried out on the Temple Mount.

Current excavations at Shiloh are noted in this Arutz-7 article. The article itself says very little, but the photos indicate that the work is being carried out in Area C, where archaeologists previously uncovered a series of Iron I buildings (from the time of Samuel).

Israeli officials are denying claims that the Jordan River is so polluted it is unsafe for baptism.

A student recounts her experience in the final season of excavations at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee.

The Daily Star (Lebanon) has an update on recent finds in the 12th season of excavations at Sidon. A one-minute telecast in Arabic shows the work in progress and some of the finds.

Haaretz carries a longer story on how recent excavations of the Jaffa Gate have apparently changed everything. There are some problems with the article, however, and you might wait to revise your book (or your class notes) until the excavators publish their report. Take note, as well, of Leen Ritmeyer’s analysis of the article.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Samaria, Temple Mount

Lebanon Defeats Israel in Hummus Contest

The Abu Gosh hummus record stood for less than four months after Lebanon makes a ten-ton dish. From the Jerusalem Post:

Lebanon launched a decisive retaliation on Saturday, in the campaign that Army Radio described as the Third Lebanon War. No Katyushas or Scuds crossed the northern border, but Lebanon served Israel a 10-ton blow in the competition for regional supremacy. Lebanon struck down Israel’s world record for the largest plate of humous on Saturday, in the village of Fanar, east of Beirut. About 300 Lebanese cooks prepared a batch of humous that weighed 10,452 kilograms, The Associated Press reported. A Guinness World Records adjudicator confirmed that Lebanon reclaimed the record. Lebanon accuses Israel of stealing traditional Arab dishes such as humous, and marketing them worldwide as Israeli. Saturday’s plate more than doubled the record set on January 8 by Jawdat Ibrahim, of Abu Ghosh. However, the competition’s not over. “No matter what happens I’m going to double it. I’m going to show who humous belongs to,” Ibrahim told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Ibrahim’s humous is made in the Abu Ghosh Restaurant that he opened in late 1992, single-handedly starting a dining trend that put his town on the national tourism map. He uses all Israeli chickpeas, grown on kibbutzim.

The rest of the story includes Ibrahim’s promise to reclaim the record before the year is out, along with his goal of using the contest to promote peace between Lebanon and Israel.

Tagged Lebanon

Beirut, As It Was

One of these days I’m going to get to Beirut, Lebanon. Until then, I’m going to imagine that it looks just like this.

Beirut and St. George’s Bay, probably in 1920s

J. L. Porter visited the city in the 1870s and wrote about it in The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria’s Holy Places: “The site of Beyrout is among the finest in the world. From the base of Lebanon a triangular plain juts into the sea, and round a little bay on its northern shore nestles the nucleus of the city, engirt by old walls and towers. Behind the city the ground rises with a gentle slope, and is thickly studded with villas of every graceful form which Eastern fancy, grafted on Western taste, can devise; and all embosomed in the foliage of the orange, mulberry, and palm. In spring time and summer Beyrout is beautiful. The glory of Lebanon behind, a mantle of verdure wrapped closely round it, fringed by a pearly strand; in front the boundless sea, bright and blue as the heavens that over-arch it. Such is Beyrout” (282).

The photo and quotation are both taken from the Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-10591).

Tagged American Colony Photos, Lebanon