The grandeur of the Baalbek complex matches that of the Roman Colosseum - it's in fact the best preserved Roman temple in the world. The town is a Hezbollah stronghold, and while visiting we heard gunshots, but it turned out to be a wedding. The following day there was a bomb explosion, though.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.
Throughout history, the site was visited by Emperors Trajan, Wilhelm II of Germany, and the Polish prince Radziwiłł. It was great to see a Roman xystus that still stands.ISO 100, 24mm, f/3.5, 1/80s.
While in retrospective it's even visibly obvious that the guide was half-mad, we made the mistake of saying yes, please show us around. He spoke at the rate of a thousand incomprehensible words per minute, in three languages, that became four when we told him two of us were from Poland. Except he didn't speak Polish but Russian. He was very pleased with himself.ISO 400, 26mm, f/2.8, 1/60s.
Some cool stats? UK now and the Roman Empire then have a similar population - but the Roman Empire employed 530 times fewer public servants. Not a completely fair comparison, as the Roman Empire did not try to provide public health care or education.ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/100s.
(Neither does the US, ha ha.) The United States may have world's most powerful military now - but if the US wanted to match the military effort of the Roman Empire, they would have to enlist 10 times many more soldiers than they do currently! (That's based on the number of soldiers per population. This is a crude comparison, as now there are different weapons, and the rules of war have changed, too.)ISO 100, 24mm, f/4.5, 1/100s.
Venus was worshipped here, and this is her representation which, we were told, was unfinished, as the Roman Empire converted to Christianity at that time. Sad times for Venus.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.
Later, the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern Roman Empires to ease the management of its vast lands. The Eastern Roman Empire became Byzantium while the Roman Empire became no more under the pressure from Germanic tribes, themselves pressured by the Huns (grossly oversimplified!). Byzantium lasted about a thousand years after the demise of Rome, and here is an example of a Byzantine cross.ISO 220, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/60s.
Story time: My friend Luca is a journalist. He visited the Calais Jungle refugee camp in order to document it just before it was cleared. He stayed until late and realised his phone had no credit left, so he could not call a taxi. He approached a policeman, explained he was in need, and the policeman responded: "What are we, your hotel staff?" Luca was then approached by a refugee who said "That's fine, you can use my phone", and would not accept the 2 euros Luca offered him as payment for the call. In the photo, a girl from Syria I met in Baalbek - she saw me freezing in rain (I wasn't prepared for -4 C), and gave me her umbrella.ISO 250, 60mm, f/2.8, 1/60s.
Luca was on this trip too, and it was his and mine interest in the contemporary matters that drove us to seek some of the more recent refugee camps in Lebanon. The population of Lebanon is less than 6 million, and around 1.5 million are refugees. [1]ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/2500s.
There are refugee camps everywhere. Unlike the refugee camps in Israel/West Bank or in Shatila, these are actually tents.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/2000s.
Our driver said it was very dangerous to visit these camps. We pushed him to take us in there anyway, but he kept coming up with what we decided were excuses: we needed an army permit to visit, we needed to have the camp authorities issue some sort of formal approval...ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/2000s.
The people were of all ages. Once again, it felt pretty bad to just burst into a camp like this, take some photos, and leave never to be seen again.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/400s.
The Umayyads were the second caliphate, a successful one - if short-lived. They extended the borders of the Islamic Empire as far as France, and it's they who built the Córdoba Mosque, and whose architectural elements the Spanish eventualy brought into the New World.ISO 100, 44mm, f/4.5, 1/1000s.
I didn't realise this, but as we were entering the site with a conspicuous backpack containing a drone, someone working at the site asked "aeroplane camera?!", to which my friend Kartik said "... Uh no."ISO 100, 24mm, f/5.6, 1/500s.
So we flew the drone to shoot the area from above. The guy who asked about the "aeroplane camera" lost it at that point... We were yelled at big time, and then he made a frantic phone call in Arabic. Later I found out there's a headquarters of intelligence services in Anjar - woops!ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/550s.
This is the maverick driver I mentioned, and note how he used the Hello Kitty brand perhaps to further emphasise his approach of not giving a f***.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/100s.
Coming back from Baalbek we had to rush as we risked being cut off by the snow. We had to cross the mountains before it was too late, which I thought was really romantic and old-school. The time was running out, but we stopped to get some food, and this is what I found - brains.ISO 640, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/60s.
But after a while Lebanese food gets a bit samey, especially combined with the typical Middle Eastern aversion to spices (Silk Road my ass!).ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/120s.
On another day, we visited Byblos - the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world (but then, many cities claim just that). In the photo, my friend Dorota looking distinctively Eastern European.ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/320s.
There's a museum here that also sells legit fossilised fish and other frutti di mare. They come with a certificate of authenticity, and the more impressive the preserved thing is, the more it costs. Angler fish-like fish with an eye and impressive teeth are pricey.ISO 110, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/25s.
We had to come here twice, as the first time around we missed the castle. Don't worry, said the girls who were showing us around, at least there's a nice church you can photograph. This was it! My eye began to twich angrily.ISO 3600, 24mm, f/5.0, 1/25s.
In the ancient times, cedarwood and wine and asphalt were brought from Lebanon to Egypt - the asphalt was used for embalments. [2]ISO 100, 56mm, f/7.1, 1/640s.
During the Crusades, Lebanon's Maronite Christians supplied the Crusaders with guides and archers against the Abbasid Empire (that's the third Caliphate, by the way). [2]ISO 100, 40mm, f/2.8, 1/2000s.
The city was the one that produced the famous purple dye, and received military attention from Alexander the Great, the Achaemenid Empire, or Nebuchadnezzar II.ISO 360, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/80s.
I took this picture of local carpenters - this area was meant to be visited by the most famous carpenter of all times, Jesus Christ. [3]ISO 900, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/80s.
Amazingly, they had a Hezbollah donation box! As it's considered a terrorist organisation, I guess donating money here could land you in jail!ISO 320, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/25s.
Even looking at this is still making me feel a bit sick. I read that the French thought Lebanese flatbread was napkins. [2]ISO 280, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/25s.
This mosque was allegedly built in two and a half months, using stone imitation, and is meant to sport the largest dome in the Middle East. [4]ISO 125, 58mm, f/2.8, 1/60s.
We mainly associate the Middle East with violence, but... This is the Hajj Bahaeddin Hariri Mosque in Sidon (Saida), Lebanon, and supposedly it has the biggest dome in the Middle East. It's a fairly new building, and I believe it was named after the late Rafic Hariri, a Lebanese politician whose assassination in 2005 sparked the Cedar Revolution - a movement that was both peaceful and successful (Syrian troops withdrawing from Lebanon and pry-Syrian government disbanded)!ISO 180, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/25s.
