Eid al-Adha Travels to Saida and Zahle

The first weekend of November was a major Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. Since this story involves a ram being sacrificed instead of Isaac, it is celebrated by sacrificing a goat, lamb, or even a cow. The meat of the sacrificed animal is then distributed, with a third eaten by the family, a third given to friends and neighbors, and a third given to the poor. I did not get to see any animals being sacrificed for the holiday, as my neighborhood doesn’t seem to be mostly Muslim, but apparently the observances are far more visible in the Muslim-majority areas and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Regardless, I had a few days off from school for the holiday, and decided to travel to a couple areas around Lebanon at this time.

The first place my friends and I visited is a city just south of Beirut called Saida (or Sidon). While the journey to this town was only supposed to have taken about an hour, it took my friends and I about 3 hours due to traffic and our microbus idling at the bus station until it was full.

The biggest disappointment in this was that we arrived in Saida after its main historical attraction, the Sea Castle, had closed. While I had gotten to explore this site in 2009, I was hoping to re-visit, but had to settle with taking pictures from the coastal sidewalk. The castle was built by crusaders in the early 13^th century, and was partially made from Roman ruins much like the castle in Byblos.

Saida's Sea Castle

With the castle closed, my friends and I just walked around Saida’s old city. This old city, built in the latter half of the 13^th century, is filled with winding alleyways and narrow streets. Its paths frequently become tunnels filled with small markets, and the town had a much more Middle Eastern feel than Beirut.

Saida's Old City

After wandering around a bit and eating dinner, we didn’t spend too much additional time in the city. Since Eid al-Adha began that night and Saida is mostly Muslim, many stores and businesses were likely to be closed, so we opted to return home in the late evening.

The second journey I made was to a town in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley called Zahle, and was unfortunately shorter than the Saida trip. While my friends had left for Zahle in the morning, I was stuck in Beirut until 2 PM to register for classes at GWU for the spring semester. This meant another late arrival in my destination, and not getting to see everything. On the plus side, the drive to the Bekaa Valley, which takes roughly an hour, entails driving straight up into Lebanon’s mountains, which feature some of the prettiest views I’ve seen.

By the time I got to Zahle, my friends had already walked around the town and eaten lunch, so I joined them on the tail end of their excursion. The Bekaa Valley hosts most of Lebanon’s vineyards and wineries, and I met up with everyone at a winery called Ksara. While I know nothing about wine, it was interesting seeing their maze of a wine cellar and getting to taste a couple free samples.

My roommate Brett in Ksara's wine cellar

All in all, even though I only spent an hour or so in Zahle, I apparently didn’t miss too much as there are relatively few tourist attractions in the town. I did really like the scenery of the Bekaa Valley though, which is flanked by two massive mountain ranges on two sides (Mount Lebanon and the Anti Lebanon Mountains) and is much colder than Beirut due to the elevation.