Lebanon
What is so special about Lebanon apart from its being the native land of the famous poet and artist, Khalil Gibran? Why spend your precious summer vacations there being roasted in the relentless sun of the waterless plains interspersed with the green and brown of the fields? Here is your answer.
Here you can find stately Cedar trees, which also decorate the national flag here. Apricot trees and great vignettes in the shape of vineyards of grapes can be found here. You can also get good fishing in the Rivers of Bekaa. Moreover, when you come to Beirut, you have come to the Crossroads of those two ancient civilizations- the east and the west.
Here you find excellent modern buildings and roads chock block with expensive, imported American vehicles, side-by-side with old palaces and mosques and museums. The best time to visit Lebanon is in April, May, September, October, and November. June-July is hot, humid, and definitely better spent indoors or under the shade of a tree!
Baalbek- Baalbek, whose previous history goes back to the Phoenician times and even further up to the second millennium before the Christian era, constituted an important caravan-meeting place for the entire region. The gigantic ruins of Baalbek or the City of the Sun have only their magnificent Roman pillars left to inspire painters and artists. The Romans built awe-inspiring monuments to Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus, the god of drink here.
Bacchus’ temple, one of the best protected in the world, possesses a triumph gate. The circular temple of Venus and the temple of Mercury can also be seen but alas, only the stairs of Mercury's temple are visible today
