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Beirut

Lebanon

Bec
2004-09-15 13:00:56

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Beirut
I had come here before the civil war in 1966. Naturally I did not recognise much for some 900 buildings in the centre had been completely destroyed or severely damaged during the civil war. The Holiday Inn is one of the 270 damaged but recuperable structures that were left. Its main tower had not yet been repaired when I took this picture.

Rebuilding Beirut's city centre is the responsibility of the "Société Libanaise pour le Dévelopment et la Reconstruction (Solidere) whose shares are distributed between the holders of rights to the land and damaged real estate in the city center and the new investors who subscribed the funds required for the reconstruction. The equity of the 100 000 shareholders of this inovative enterprise presently exceeds 1.6 billion US dollars.

The so-called "green line" separating the Muslim west and the Christian east parts of Beirut followed the north-south axis of the rue de Damas on which this ravaged building still stands. I have heard it would be maintained in its present condition as a reminder of the horrors of civil war.

Solidere is rebuilding the Al Omani Mosque on the corner of Weygland and Allenby streets a short distance north of the Place de l'étoile.

It is amusing to note that the French General Maxime Weygland was High Commissioner of Syria in the 20's while the British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby was High Commissioner in Egypt.

At the southern end of rue de Damas is the National Museum on the road to Broumana and Damascus. It is definitely worth a visit.

West of the city centre is the American University of Beirut in the Hamra area of Beirut. This is the entrance on rue Bliss.

The main building called College Hall, first built in 1873, was destroyed during the civil war and rebuilt in 1999.

Finally, still further west we reach here where the famous "Corniche" is bordered by a beach on the blue Mediterranean.

I had the good fortune of having made the aquaintance of the Mogab family on Internet whose members soon became my friends.

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