Salaam

The town of Baalbek is the site of the incredible Roman temple complex of Heliopolis, which includes the largest existing Roman columns in the world (an therefore an obvious must-see by my criteria of sight-seeing!). The region is also in the heartland of the Hezbollah group, and once again the immediacy of the conflict with Israel was strongly apparent. The straight highway approaching the site through the Bekaa Valley was lined with images of the Hezbollah fighters lost in the conflict, and also large roadside advertising dedicated to glorifying their struggle and achievements - and finally a propaganda tent set up at the entrance to the site itself held further information on the Hezbollah position as well as personal belongings of the men and boys killed in the conflict.

Once inside the temple site however, the outside world and it's current round of troubles seems to fade. Here was stone that had been in place through over two millenia, and had seen dozens, hundreds of problems like it, and will doubtless see hundreds more. The only thing to break the solemn peace of the ruins is the occasional fly-over of a patrolling helicopter, but even that could not distract from this monumental complex - a brilliant final taste of Lebanon and the Middle East, a part of the world I cannot wait to return to, and that I hope will find itself in an increasingly peaceful state over the coming years.