Anita'sTreasures

WHAT LIES BENEATH Anita Limaye found the stalactites and stalagmites at Jeita Grotto near Beirut to be a fascinating example of Nature’s painstaking craftsmanship    Of all the famous sculptors in history, none impresses me more than the greatest of them all – Nature! And once again Nature showed off its dexterity, not on the surface, but inside the caves of Jeita Grotto - one of the greatest pieces of sculpted art in the history of the world!    Jeita Grotto, nine mysterious kilometres of 9 km of subterranean caves, is the longest such complex in the Middle East and was a contender for the “New Seven Wonders of Nature”. Jeita Grotto got its name due to the fact that the entrance to the cave is situated in the town of Jeita which means “roaring water”. Amazingly, the stalactites and stalagmites inside these limestone caves are sculpted by nothing but water and time!    Jeita Grotto, around 20 km north of the capital city Beirut, is in the Valley of Nahr al-

CRUCIBLE OF HISTORY Anita Limaye marvelled at the heritage of southern Lebanon, even as she realised the tensions of the present day     After a thoroughly enjoyable traipse around Beirut and its environs the north, we prepared to head to the south where my husband’s unit was located. The unit was part of the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon), located deep in the mountains. When we told our guide, though, he seemed to become wary and suddenly wasn’t as enthusiastic as he had been when showing us around the north.     Finally his cause for worry surfaced. He told us it was dangerous to go south, and there were travel advisories against tourists against visiting that area anyway. Only after my husband reassured him that he was located there, and that being part of the UN would ensure that we face no hindrance, our guide agreed to take us around the south’s historic sites.     Lebanon’s unique geographical location at the cusp of Africa, Asia and Europ

BRIEFLY, BEIRUT As a city that has embraced east and west through strife-torn times, Beirut’s undeterred cosmopolitan ethos thoroughly impressed Anita Limaye    BEIRUT, the capital city of Lebanon is also known as The Lady of the World. “A thousand times she died, a thousand times revived” is what they say about this city where people from vastly different backgrounds, religious and cultural, co-exist in the Arab world’s most open and tolerant society. There is a ring of truth about that line as surely this city has seen more than its share of strife, especially in the past few decades. The good thing, however, is that the people have survived countless wars and invasions, to become an ultramodern metropolis and yet one of the oldest cities in the world.    During our visit to Lebanon, we stayed in the Beirut Central District of Hamra. Thirty years ago, Hamra Street was known as the “Champs Elysees” of the Middle East since it was frequented by tourists the whole

AN OLD WORLD Walking round the castle and souks of Tripoli, Anita Limaye got whiffs of ancient Lebanese culture      TRIPOLI – Lebanon’s second largest city stretches along its northern coast and lies 85 km from the capital, Beirut. Visiting there, I was of course intrigued that it bore the same name as the capital of Libya! I learnt later that Tripoli means ‘triple city’ in Greek and was originally the centre of a Phoenician confederation made up of Tyre, Sidon and Arados.    Tripoli is made up of two parts – Al Mina – the port area — and the enigmatic Old City which is a maze of narrow, winding streets dating back to the 14th century. Tripoli is famous for its aromatherapy soaps, traditional Lebanese sweets (variants of honeyed baklava) and fresh fish served in several wayside restaurants around Al Mina.    But first, to work up our appetite, we decided to explore the city and started at an imposing Crusader castle called the St Giles Citadel. The citadel is

LEBANON - CONTRAST COLOURS Anita Limaye found that Lebanon has a fascinating mix of serene beauty and prosperity amid its rolling geo-politics    LEBANON is a poor country of rich people”, my husband aptly told me when I arrived there; I soon discovered he was absolutely right. This Mediterranean country has a wealth of diversity — an eclectic mix of Maronite Christians, Sunnis, Shias and Druze, a culture as richly varied as its ethnic groups, and a wonderfully liberal outlook in dress and lifestyle — but is tied down by the circumstance of geography and politics.    Landing at Beirut, once known as the ‘Paris of the East’, we were picked up by a Mercedes taxi sent by our hotel. The affluence of the nation was palpable immediately. Indeed, a look around Hamra, the shopping district of Beirut where we were also stayed, instantly revealed the opulence of the people.    High-end brand names jostled with each other for space - whether it was clothing brands or res

A NAPA IN THE BEKAA VALLEY... Anita Limaye was pleasantly surprised to get a taste of the ancient wine legacy of Lebanon at the 150-year-old Chateau Ksara in the valley of vines    WINE – the proverbial drink of the Gods! A word which evokes feelings of celebration and jubilation. And what better place to relive that exhilaration than the birthplace of this nectar of grapes — Lebanon? It is said that the ancient Phoenicians who lived along the coastline of today’s Lebanon actually spread the wine culture along the Mediterranean littoral, so the next time we quaff a nice glass of wine, we know who to thank for their existence!    Not that we were thinking of the history of wine much as we visited this quaint wooden building — the symbol of Ksara — enroute to the magnificent Roman ruins of Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley. It’s just that we were fascinated by the idea of a 150 year old winery being tucked away in a quiet nook of the frequently uneasy Bekaa Valley in Le

PHAROAHS & FANTASY Anita Limaye got a feel of both ancient and modern Egypt on the last days of her trip    WE saved Memphis and Saqqara, and an amusement park in Cairo for the last day of our trip, in a way symbolising Egypt’s ancient past and the modern present. The erstwhile capital of Egypt, Memphis is still abundant in natural beauty and the contrasting arid desert of Saqqara – the necropolis of ancient Egypt — proved to be spellbinding contrasts in themselves.    Our short drive to Memphis from Giza gave us a pretty good picture of Cairo — a very crowded city, just like our own Indian metros! We crossed the Nile once again and entered what seemed to be a huge palm tree forest. We learnt from our guide that Memphis is a Greek word derived from the Egyptian word ‘Men-fer’ meaning ‘stable’ and ‘pretty’.    ‘Stable’ was pretty accurate as Memphis stayed at the centre of Egypt’s word right till the era of the Pharaohs, including the New Kingdom when Ramses II

BEACON OF THE AGES Alexandria’s ancient lighthouse may have been long destroyed but the Egyptian city by the Mediterranean continues its millennial quest to illuminate, as Anita Limaye discovered    PART of the charm of Egypt is its amazing array of ancient wonders which seem to exist happily cheek-by-jowl with the hurly-burly of the modern world. No where is that more evident than in the port city of Alexandria, which was once the cynosure of the ancient world . Even today Alexandria is the second most important city in Egypt — and is, indubitably, the most beautiful one!    Ironically, although the city is named after Alexander the Great, he never lived to see it! When Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, he ordered a new capital city to be built. He died, however, in 323 BC before the city came up, so the first king to rule from Alexandria was Ptolemy I. Alexandria remained an important Mediterranean port city until the rule of the last of this dynasty