Sidon (Saida), Lebanon

43 km south of Beirut, lies the third great Phoenician city-state which experienced its golden age during the Persian era between end of the 6th century BC and mid of 4th century BC.
Sidon; ancient Sidouna, one of the famous names in ancient history, was an open city with many cultural influences, including the Egyptian Pharaohs and the Greeks. During the Persian period, Aegean sculptors contributed to the nearby temple of Eshmoun; the city's god, which was associated with the Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing.
The Crusader period (1110-1291 AD) brought Sidon new prestige, as second of four baronies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Today you can enjoy visiting the ruins of the fortress church known as the Castle of the Sea which was erected by the Crusading Knights of St. John, and the Shell of the Castle of St. Louis (the Land Castle) which sits atop the Phoenician Acropolis near Murex hill, so named after the Murex shell from which the famous Phoenician purple dye extracted.
In the old town, more recent Mamluk and Ottoman buildings worth a visit such as Soap Caravansary (Khan Assabun), Franks Caravansary (Khan El-Franj) built by Emir Fakhreddin II, and the Great Mosque above Egyptian Pharaohs harbor which still retains the 13th century BC walls of the Castle of the Sea.
 

Beirut, Lebanon

Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, with its million-plus inhabitants, conveys a sense of life and energy that is immediately apparent. This dynamism is echoed by the Capital's geographical position: a great promontory jutting into the blue sea with dramatic mountains rising behind it. A city with a venerable past, 5000 years ago Beirut was a prosperous town on the Canaanite and Phoenician coast.
Named Beroth, the city of wells, by the Phoenicians, it is one of the oldest settlements of man as evidenced by relics from prehistoric communities.
 

 Beirut entered the most glorious period of its ancient history when was occupied by Romans under the command of Emperor Pompey in 64 BC.
In 15 BC it was named Colonia, Julia, Augusta, Felix, then Berythus and acquired the rights of a Roman city-state. What most contributed to its fame, however, was its School of Law which, under Septimus Severus (192-212 AD), excelled the schools of Constantinople and Athens and rivaled that of Rome. The school whose professors helped draft the famous Justinian Code.
A devastating earthquake in 551 AD destroyed Beirut. A century later it was conquered by the Muslim Arabs and in 1109 it fell to the Crusaders. The city remained in Crusader hands until 1291, when the Mamluks took it.
Beirut nowadays, remains the cultural and commercial center of Lebanon. Today the war-ruined city center is being reconstructed under a 25-year project envisages a new modern city that will also retain its familiar Oriental flavor.

Baalbeck, Lebanon

85 km north east of Beirut, is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure, which can be counted among the wonders of the ancient world.
Baalbeck is the embodiment of the superlative. It is one of the world's greatest historical and best preserved Roman sites; the most gigantic, largest and most noble complex of Roman temples ever built, its columns are the taller ever erected, its stones are the largest ever used.

Towering high above the Beqaa plain, its monumental proportions proclaimed the power and wealth of Imperial Rome. Gods worshipped here, in its Acropolis which was constructed between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Triad of Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus (Mercury), were grafted onto the indigenous deities of Hadad, Atargatis and a young male god of fertility.
Local influences are also seen in the planning and layout of the temples, which vary from the classic Roman design.
In Jupiter Temple, only six of the 54 giant columns that originally surrounded the sanctuary survives today. The temple has an impressive podium and a vast rectangular courtyard where sacrifices were carried out. The sanctuary is reached through a Propylaea (monumental entrance) and hexagonal forecourt.
The town of Baalbeck has major remains from Islam times including the Grand Mosque built by Umayyad Caliphs with material borrowed from ancient monuments, and another mosque built in Mamluks time near the spring of Ras El-Ayn.
Over the centuries Baalbeck's monuments suffered from theft, war and earthquakes, as well as from numerous medieval additions. Fortunately, the modern visitor can see the site in something close to its original form thanks to work in the past hundred years by German, French and Lebanese archaeologists.