The "Piles of Rocks" Tour continues...

Couple days ago we took an early morning jaunt from Beirut to the ancient city of Byblos. Byblos. Think bibliography, books, bible, that sort of thing. It was here back in the days of the Phoenicians and even pre-Phoenicians (Whomever the heck they were) papyrus was made for the printing of the written word. From which came books. Get it?

The earliest documented settlers here set up shop around 6000 BCE, give or take. There is a nice spring which seemed to make it a good place to live.

Just about any ancient civilization and culture you can think of called Byblos home at one time or other. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders. Lahdy dahdy and everybody.

This is the final resting sarcophagus of a king who was related to the Egyptians of Pyramid fame. I found the tunnel leading down to it. Naturally it had long ago been stripped of valuables.

These Corinthian columns were what the Romans left. Those guys were EVERYWHERE!

Then of course your Crusaders built this fort sometime around 1047 AD, I think it was. There are a couple interesting things about this castle.

The Crusaders, ever the historical preservationists, used Roman columns from the area to strengthen the walls of the fort. You can see the ends sticking out in this wall.

Some other things you can see stuck in the walls are cannon balls. I don't know who fired those, but they certainly did it long after the Crusaders blew town. I'll say this, the doggone fort was pretty well built. The inside pix were cool too.

You could just imagine the defenders pouring hot oil and shooting bows and arrows on the infidels below. Well, technically they only shot the arrows. But, I reckon once those ran out they probably shot the bows at 'em too.

This was our group. From there we had to hustle back to the hotel for one last Beirut Shishtawouk, grab our bags and get to the airport. Byblos certainly doesn't match up to the awe of Petra, Baalbek or the Pyramids. But, it's a pretty fascinating place and we could have spent a couple more hours there easily. AND it's on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Number four for the trip.

On to Bahrain.