Best Lebanese Destinations: Beirut Corniche, Baalbek Roman Temples, Byblos, Jeita Grotto, Cedars of God, Tripoli and a Deep Phoenician Heritage Tour
Browse more guides: Lebanon travel | Asia destinations Best Lebanese Destinations: Beirut Corniche, Baalbek (UNESCO 1984), Byblos (UNESCO 1984), Jeita Grotto, Ouadi Qadisha and Cedars of God (UNESCO 1998), Tripoli and a Deep Phoenician Heritage Tour TL;DR I came into Lebanon expecting one country and walked through six layered ones, all stacked into a strip of land 225 km long that I crossed on a single afternoon. My first walk on the Corniche in Beirut ran 4.8 km from the Saint George Marina to Ramlet al-Baida, with the 70 m Pigeon Rocks of Raouché breaking the line of the sea. The next morning I was 85 km east in the Bekaa Valley at Baalbek, counting the six remaining 22 m columns of the Temple of Jupiter, then walking the 69 by 36 m hall of the Temple of Bacchus that was finished around 150 AD and is, by most measurements, the best-preserved Roman temple anywhere. By day three I had gone 37 km north of Beirut to Byblos, where archaeologists have stratified seven thousand years ...