Jounieh, Lebanon

Lebanon: Jounieh and Byblos

After a long, long, night, which did not involve sleeping, I headed out early one morning to go to Jeitta Grotto, where photography was strictly prohibited, so no pictures (unless you click the link). Jeitta Grotto was beautiful, and had an interesting history considering that it is not only one of the largest single locations of stalactites and stalagmites in the world, but also during the Lebanese civil war in 1978, it was used as munitions storage.

Following Jeitta Grotto, I took a taxi to the small town of Jounieh, the location of the teleferique and the Harissa.

There's not much to do in Jounieh, aside from the assortment of "super night clubs", which are essentially euphemistically named brothels. The town supposedly, during the 1970's, used to serve as an escape for international celebrities looking to get away from the craziness in Beirut; they would bring their yachts down the Jounieh harbor, and party like there was no tomorrow...

Now, the main attraction there is a ride on the teleferique, which is the cable car thing that you see I've got going on in the pictures above. It both looks and feels as though it hasn't had maintenance done on it in quite some time, but does provide a really breathtaking view of the Lebanese coast. The ride takes around 10 minutes from the base to the top of the mountain which houses the Harissa, an enormous statue of the virgin Mary overlooking the Lebanese coastline.

Iskandar