"Baalbek" Jimsim’s photos around Baalbeck, Lebanon

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Baalbeck, Lebanon by TravelPod blogger Jimsim titled "Baalbek" Jimsim’s travel blog entry: "That afternoon we got one of the local taxi drivers to take us the 1.5 hours over the mountains into the Bekaa Valley, heading for the town of Baalbek. Although the taxi (a 1960's Merc) looked like it's next trip should have been to the wreckers, like most Lebanese service taxis it ran like a charm and got us to our hotel in Baalbek with no major issues. Baalbek felt a lot more conservative than the places we'd stayed on the coast, and Hezbollah flags were flying everywhere. As Baalbek is known to be a Hezbollah stronghold the town was hit hard in the 2006 war with Israel — many of the main buildings around town were still looking bombed out, which added to the slightly surreal feeling we had while we were there. On top of this, when the owner of the hotel we were staying in gave us his suggestions for places to eat in town each description would tend to end with "this place, it is very popular with Hezbollah" or something similar. For all those who aren't members of Hezbollah though, the main reason for visiting Baalbek is to see the amazing Roman ruins -- among the best in the Middle East. They certainly were dramatic, particularly the Temple of Bacchus (the god of wine) which was in spectacular condition -- it was very easy to see how the temple would have looked like when it was first built -- and the once-massive Temple of ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 1m 6s Date Found: Sat, Feb 26 2011 12:59 PM Category: Travel Date Produced: Sat, Feb 26 2011 8:18 AM View Count: 0