Middle East - Anthony Ham [350]
For a long list of Lebanese environment-related links, go to Leb Web at www.lebweb.com/dir/lebanon-environment.
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FOOD & DRINK
Lebanese cuisine has a reputation as being one of the very best in the Middle East. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating, so sample as much of it as you possibly can.
Fresh ingredients, including numerous types of fruit, vegetables and pulses, are plentiful in Lebanon. Mezze, small dishes often served as starters, are a godsend for vegetarians even in the most far-flung parts of the country, with hummus, tabouleh and salads galore, while seafood and grilled meats are staunch favourites of carnivores. In Beirut, the diversity and quality of food on offer matches any international city: want tapas at two in the morning, or sushi at six? You’ll find it all here.
Arabic or ‘Turkish’ coffee is particularly popular in Lebanon – look out for the men dispensing tiny, strong cups of it from the back of battered old Volkwagen vans – while delicious freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices are on offer almost everywhere throughout the summer. Alcohol, too, is widely available in Lebanon; Beirut’s awash with cocktails, but the most popular alcoholic old-timer is the potent aniseed-flavoured arak, mixed liberally with water and ice, and sipped alongside meals or a long game of backgammon. The best local beer is Almaza, which lives up to its name (‘diamond’ in Arabic) when served ice-cold.
Click here for a more general description of the region’s culinary delights.
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BEIRUT
01 / pop 1.3 million
Beirut, the nation’s capital, is a fabulous place of glitz, glamour, restaurants and beach clubs – if, that is, you’re one of the lucky ones. While the city centre is filled with suave sophistication, the outskirts of town comprise some of the most deprived Palestinian refugee camps of all, and its crowded slums provide a breeding ground for Hezbollah fighters. If you’re looking for the real East-meets-West so talked about in the Middle East, this is precisely where it’s at. Crowded and ancient, beautiful and blighted, hot and heady, home to Prada and Palestinians, Beirut is many things at once, most of them contradictory but all, without doubt, compelling.
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HISTORY
Though there’s evidence of a city on the site of modern Beirut dating back at least to ancient Egyptian times, it wasn’t until the Roman era that the city really came into its own, both as a commercial port and military base and, by the 3rd century AD, as the location of a world-renowned school of law, one of the first three in the world. The city’s fame continued until 551 AD, when a devastating earthquake and resultant tsunami brought massive death, destruction and decline. The law school was moved to Sidon, and Beirut didn’t regain its importance as a trading centre and gateway to the Middle East until the 16th century, under local emir Fakhreddine.
In the 19th century Beirut enjoyed a commercial boom, but also the first of much meddling by European powers as French troops arrived at the city’s port. The early years of the 20th century saw citywide devastation, the combined result of a WWI Allied blockade, famine, revolt and plague, which killed in total a quarter of its population. Following WWII, however, the city slowly became a major business, banking and publishing centre and remained so until the bloody, brutal civil war that ravaged the city’s streets and citizens put paid to its supremacy.
Following the end of the war in 1990, rehabilitation of the city’s infrastructure became the major focus of both the local and national governments, to restore