Welcome
Travelogues
Begin trip
Previous: 3 Chouf
Tripoli in the north, is the second largest city in Lebanon after Beirut. It is not as ancient as Byblos, Saida and Tyr, having been founded as a Phoenician trading station only about 1400 BC.
Tripoli did not escape the civil war but it was less damaged than Beirut because the local populations, Sunni Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians were less involved in the civil war that raged mostly between the Maronite Christians and the Druze and Shia Muslims. Being more distant from Israel in the north also spared Tripoli from the destruction wrought by the 1978 and 1982 Israeli invasions.
Fu'ad drove us first to Tripoli's al-Mina harbour where we see him and his daughter Maha, examining the fishing boats tied up along the "Corniche".
A little further along the Corniche, stands the elegant minaret of the Omar Ben al-Khattab Mosque built in 1967.
Here is a view of the famous Saint Gilles Citadel built inland on a hill overlooking the Nahr Abu Ali river.
The site was first fortified by the Arabs in 636. The Fatimids added a mosque in the 11th century, which the crusader Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, converted into a church when he enlarged the fortress in 1103. It fell to the Mamluk Baibars in 1268 and was enlarged again by the Mamluk Prince Asandamor Al-Kurdji in 1307.
The style of the northern tower defending the main gate, reveals the origin of its builder, the Ottoman Sultan Soleiman ben Selim.
A second gate has to by crossed before reaching inside the fortress.
This inner redoubt or keep was the defender's last refuge should the fortress be overrun.
The platform up these stairs provides good views of the city over the eastern wall.
Here is a view of the old city with modern high rise appartment buildings in the background.
Here is an everyday street scene in the old city. It is interesting to note the contrast between the woman's traditional flowing dress and her daughter's tight, revealing modern clothes.
Two ladies tempted by the assortment of nuts and seeds offered by a street vendor.
The 30 metre high Clock Tower on Jamal Abdul Nasser Square (Tell square), was built by the Ottomans in1901.
The style of these venerable houses on the other side of the square is a reminder of the Ottoman occupation that lasted from 1516 to 1918.
The monuments of old Tripoli read like a history book but there is also the much larger, dynamic modern Tripoli that looks to the future like these enthusiastic boys in a park by the Nahr Abu Ali river.
I was very fortunate to have visited Tripoli with the Mogab family but there is so much to see there that I hope to return someday. Now it was time to get back to Beirut and prepare for my next stop; Baalbek.
