A walk on Eid al Adha

Eid al Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) is an important Muslim holiday that happens in October.  It celebrates with willingness of Abraham to sacrifice is son, Ishmael, for Allah (God).  In the end, Allah replaced his son with a ram because Abraham was willing. Allah rewarded him by saving his son.

During a wonderful (almost) week off, we decided to take a long walk towards the downtown area. The Lebanese tend to sleep in when they can and therefore the streets were empty. We wanted to take this picture for our friends Everett and Meg because they seem to always have pictures of empty streets where they live in South Korea.

No Everett, the zombie apocalypse didn't happen in Beirut!
We weren't quite sure where we were going but about 40 minutes later we found Nejme Square and it's famous clock tower. This area is usually blocked off by the military and yes the gates were there blocking traffic but we were there so early that the military weren't at their stations yet.

From there we went into St. Georges Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Pictures weren't allowed inside but WOW it was truly beautiful. There was a small chapel outside that had this great mosaic though. We took a picture of it.

Across the way from St. Georges church is the famous Grand Mosque. It was truly beautiful!

Notice the cross to the right? That's the newly remodeled St. Georges Maronite Cathedral (I think). Both are huge! But here's the really interesting thing. Between where I'm standing and these incredible buildings they found Roman ruins that they are now excavating.

We walked around the Mosque and Cathedral and ended up at Martyr's Square.

The statues commemorate Lebanese nationalists who were hanged during World War I by the Ottamans. What was remarkable is that Tim counted over 70 holes from bullets in one of the figures. The arm was blasted off of one as well. This monument survived the fighting that happened in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.  All around the monument it is pretty much flat. Nothing has been developed there yet. I think it's because they have found more ruins.

On the way home I took a picture of something very typically seen in Beirut. Giant cranes are everywhere. This is definitely a city that is still being rebuilt.

It was a long walk but really interesting. While many of the shops were closed because we were there so early I feel that we really had the opportunity to look around while there were no crowds.