Everyone knows Petra.
Everyone knows the Coliseum.
In general, the great architectural marvels of the past are now commercialized and remain if only to offer wealthy travelers a chance to minimize their bucket list and get a frequent flyer pin.
Being generally intrigued by the mysteries of the world and owning up to a strange affinity for geography with the rest of my family, I naturally decided it was time to start a new series: discovering. inconspicuous. geography: d.i.g.
The site Atlas Obscura, shown me by my brother Kyle, has helped me find plenty of lesser-known spheres of life in my free time. However, it was the book Tea with the Hezbollah (a great read about loving your enemies...set in the Middle East) by one of my favorite authors, Ted Dekker, and amazing speaker Carl Medearis, that breathed inspiration into this first post.
Baalbek, Lebanon.
In it, Ted mentions a beautiful ruin-clad mountain-top with historic roots reaching all the way back to Cain in the book of Genesis: Baalbek. Heres a teaser:
"What is amazing about the archaeology in Baalbek is the unique tale it tells of changing religion. Behind us were the remains of the Phoenician temple to Baal, the god to whom ancient worshipers sacrificed animals and children. On top and around these excavated ruins from which Baalbek takes is name stands the two-thousand-year-old columns from the Jupiter temple, built by the Romans. Among these ruins lies what remains of a Byzantine (Christian) church, and finally, the ruins of the walls of a Muslim citadel and mosque."
Does that not sound amazing?
See for yourself:
As soon as I read "Baalbek" I remembered it was from that book. Amazing place and amazing book!
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