Lebanon

Byblos awaits today, site of one of the great trading cities of the early Bronze Age and arguably the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. Through its trading contacts with the Greek world, Byblos exported the alphabet to the West. Our morning includes visits to the citadel and St. John’s Church, and in the afternoon we visit the archaeological park as well as monuments from the crusader period. We’ll also stop to view the inscriptions left by ancient armies at the Nahr-el-kalb (the Dog River), between Byblos and Beirut.

All day in Beirut, a city reborn – the rebuilding program following the civil war (1975 -1990) gave the unique opportunity for an archaeological study of the city. The earliest occupation dates to the Palaeolithic period, but the first urban phase belongs to the Middle Bronze Age (c. 3000BC). The Roman city of Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus was famous in the third century for its law school. The major surviving monuments also date from this period, including a large bath complex and one of the main thoroughfares lined with shops, luxury houses and a laundry. We visit the National Museum with excellent collections of Lebanon's cultural heritage and the reconstructed heart of the city and the central archaeological zone with the remains of Roman Berytus. Afterwards, we make our way to Zahle.

The great temple complex of Baalbek in the heart of the Bekka valley awaits discovery today. It includes the vast Temple of Jupiter Heliopolis, once the largest in the world (22.9 m high), with peristyles and hexagonal courts. To the side, lies the Temple of Bacchus and the remarkable state of preservation of these temples – particularly the latter – show fine detail of their devotional purpose. We also visit the nearby quarries, which contain some of the largest monoliths ever quarried.

Following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the first Islamic dynasty of the Umayyads saw themselves as heirs of Rome and Byzantium, and used the architectural and artistic language of those earlier powers to express their own ideas. This fusion between east and west is nowhere more evident than at the planned city of Anjar. In the afternoon we will visit the temples of the Roman period at Niha. The chief temple here is dedicated to the god Hadaranes and has been well restored.

We start our day with a visit to the palace at Beit Eddine. Built by the Emir Bechir at the end of the 18th century in an opulent oriental style, today it also contains a museum of Byzantine mosaics. We also visit the contemporary town of Deir El Qamar before travelling back to Beirut.

Sidon grew wealthy from the production of glass and textiles, and held a favored position with the great King of Persia. In their wars with the Greeks, the Persians relied on Sidon's navy. We visit the Temple of Eshmoun, patron god of Sidon, and see evidence of the Crusader past with a visit to the Sea Castle. Tyre: "Say to Tyre, that city standing on the edge of the sea, doing business with the nations in innumerable islands" – this was Ezekiel's description of Iron Age Tyre, one of the great cities of the ancient Near East. Its wealth, through trade and manufacture, particularly of purple dye from the murex, was the benchmark from which all others were measured, and the influence of the cities colonies spread right across the Mediterranean. We also visit the two archaeological parks, which show the wealth of Tyre in the Roman period.

Our tour ends in Beirut and we make our independent onward journeys.