In Pictures: Ibrahim Shaker Palace – Ras Al Jabal / Aley

Saudi business magnate Ibrahim Shaker had his villa built in one of the most strategic locations in Aley in the 1950s. Shaker was a business pioneer in Saudi Arabia and a member of the Administrative Committee of the first Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jeddah, a committee founded in 1946 and that included Jeddah's elite traders. The villa's location was next to the infamous Hill 888, a highly strategic spot, which witnessed a lot…

Present-day Lebanese Descendants of Biblical Canaanites

A recent paper entitled "Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences" has proven that more "than 90 percent of the genetic ancestry of modern Lebanese is derived from ancient Canaanites", whereas researchers were able to "sequence the Canaanite genome from the remains of five individuals buried in the ancient port city of Sidon around 3,700 years ago" and then compare the results against…
Baladi

Baalbeck’s Megalithic Stone Blocks: Ancient Engineering or Aliens?

6 years ago
I spent my Sunday morning reading about Baalbeck’s massive stone blocks and how no one has figured out yet how Romans were able to cut with such precision a 3,000 ton stone, why and how ...
History

Independence Parade – Lebanon 1971

6 years ago
We had more warplanes and helicopters back in 1971 than we currently have now. Unfortunately, the 12 Mirages that we got from France were never really used due to lack of funds and later sold ...
Baladi

Al Kassouf Grand Hotel

7 years ago
Check out these beautiful shots that I took from inside the iconic Al Kassouf Hotel in Shweir, which was built in the 1930s and damaged during the war. According to a 2013 post on Shweir.com, ...
History

Lebanon at the Disco Dance Finals in 1980

7 years ago
I have no idea how my friend Mark dug out this video but it’s pretty cool. There was a Lebanese participant at the the 1980 Disco Dance World Finals called Henri Daou. I have no ...
Baladi

In Pictures: Bechara El Khoury Abandoned Palace in Zokak el-Blat

7 years ago
Zokak el-Blat used to be one of the upper class districts in Beirut where villas and palaces were built. It was also the first area to have a paved road, hence its name. Two of ...
Baladi

Visiting The Grand Aley Hotel, Also Known As Gebaily Hotel

7 years ago
I shared a piece by the Guardian earlier this year on the The Grand Aley Hotel and how it’s been for sale since 2008 after the central bank seized the hotel. Update: The owners are ...
Art

World’s Oldest Scale Found Near Kfaraabida, North Lebanon (Via Beirut Report)

7 years ago
The world’s oldest scale beam as well as other fascinating archaeological finds are currently on display at the American University of Beirut Archaeology museum. The scale beam “dates back to the early third millennium BC ...
History

An Enlightening Report On The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918)

7 years ago
The CMDR (Centre Maronite de Documentation et de Recherche) released a nice report on The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon between 1915 and 1918 that lead to the death of half of the population of ...
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