A weekend in Beirut

Last weekend saw a trip the National Museum of Beirut, which is something I have wanted to see for a while, partly because of its incredible collection of items mapping the history of Lebanon from pre-phoenician to only a few centuries ago, But mostly due to its position in the modern history of Beirut, where during the civil war it sat on the front line between two halves of a divided city. Located on the division between east and west Beirut it experienced some of the heaviest fighting of conflict and was at risk of looting. The Museum has an excellent short documentary telling the story of how the Museum's staff in order to try and protect the history of Lebanon moved thousands of artifacts into the underground storerooms as well encasing sarcophagi and statues in boxes of concrete to protect them. The documentary has some incredible footage of workmen breaking open these cube's of concrete after the ceasefire to reveal pieces of history not seen for a decade and a half.

This clever thinking by those in charge of the Museum at the outbreak of civil war arguably prevented looting like that of Baghdad's Museums in 2003. The Museum has been painstakingly restored during the 1990's and is once again a beautiful building where you can see clues to the different civilisations that have influenced the development of the people living in modern Lebanon, from Greek and Egyptian to the first Islamic peoples coming from the East.

After a trip to the museum, we went shopping at a market close to the Museum, which was an interesting experience, You could buy pretty much anything you can imagine there, from food and drink, to shoes, or parts of taps. As well as on one side of the market a section dedicated entirely to animals.