Lebanon 2006

Sidon

 

On day two I was a little more confident in getting around and found a bus to take me to Sidon, and from there another one to take me to ancient Tyre, now entirely populated by Hezbollah, being close to the Isreali border and UN troops that would go to dinner with Hezbollah and then have their pictures taken, arm-in-arm with them. Some obeservers. Seeing that, for the first time put the whole UN implementation in question. Of course, not long after I departed the Middle East, Hezbollah captured some Israeli troops and fired rockets into Israel, from numerous missile sites that somehow seemed to have escaped the UN observers' attention. Well, they were observing the lavish dinners instead. Things have gone from bad to worse since then. Hezbollah managed to worm its way into the Lebanese government (and lo and behold, no assassinations) and the Spanish UN troops stationed up north, are reportedly afraid to leave their base at night to patrol, while Hezbollah busily rearms.

 

Something I had not expected was this beautiful little palace I happen to see as I wandered the streets by the ocean. It was open for visitors.

 

This place was in museum condition, superbly maintained

 

Right down to the furniture
The view from the palace roof toward modern Sidon, across the older parts of town and old mosque
The backdoor of the palace leads to this shopping area

 

This is what the palace roof looks like

 

 

From the palace roof I also saw something that I had expected and hoped to visit, a little crusader fort
In later centuries, some eager Muslim local leader crowned the crusader fort with a small mosque
A place for lovers to hide away from judgemental eyes of the other 'fun-loving' Muslims

 

The entrance lies at the end of a defensible causeway
The crusader knights' great hall

 

 

In a busy modern shopping area I went to have some coffee and do some people watching

 

What I did see was a man with a very bad-fitting wig eyeing a girl with her little butt crack showing. At least we had the latter in common.

 

Time to head to ancient Tyre

 

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