Cedars of God + Khalil Gibran Museum (Bsharri, Lebanon)

Transcript:

Today, we managed to see the Cedars of God, the Kahlil Gibran Museum, and the Qadisha Grotto; all of which are located in northern Lebanon near the town of Bsharri.

Before we go further, please like and subscribe to our channel down below :)

On our way we made a brief stop to the birthplace of perhaps the most venerated of all the Lebanese saints — Saint Charbel.

Charbel Makhlouf hailed from a religious family and he dedicated his life to his beliefs, exercising them through his hermetic existence.

After his studies were complete, the saint is said to have lived his final 23 years in almost complete solitude. In fact, it was in this very home he spent the last chapter of his life.

Yet both during his time on earth and after, it is said that Saint Charbel performed miracles, which included healing a partially paralyzed woman through two puncture wounds in her neck, which gave her the ability to walk once again.

His hometown of Bekaa Kafra, possibly the highest village in Lebanon, continues to celebrate his spirit. You are as close to the heavens in this place where the earth and the skies meet. The clouds kiss the mountains in which he was also baptized.

Next we left Saint Charbel’s village for another brief stop at the Qadisha Grotto.

Extending roughly 700 meters into the mountains, the small grotto displays exquisite limestone formations. While it isn’t quite as supreme of a natural wonder as the world famous Jeita Grotto near Beirut, it's worth the visit if you’re near the Cedars of God or the Gibran Museum.

After the Qadisha Grotto, we headed for the Cedars of God, a site so important to Lebanon’s historical and cultural heritage that it inspired the country’s flag.

The ancient accounts of the Lebanese cedars seem to indicate they’re referring to the ones here in Bsharri, but I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly makes these trees so special?

The Phoenicians, who were the first to establish trading routes via the sea and master shipbuilding, used this evergreen timber. But they were hardly the only ones in the region to covet the cedar.

The Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, and Turks all sought Lebanese cedar. The Egyptians used it for shipbuilding and construction and the Ottoman Empire even used it to construct railways.

While a sliver of the once mighty forest remains, the prized natural resource has been greatly destroyed by centuries of deforestation.

However, that doesn’t stop us from appreciating what remains and enjoying the mythology and the stories that were spawned by the Cedars of God.

It was once said that humans and the demigods battled over the divine cedar trees of southern Mesopotamia. The forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was ravaged when humans entered the land 4700 years ago, defeating the demigods. This same story also claims that Gilgamesh used cedar to build his great city of Uruk.

In addition to construction, the Egyptians also used cedar resin for the mummification process and the wood itself for some of their first hieroglyph bearing papyrus rolls. In the Bible, King Solomon procured Lebanese cedar to build the Temple in Jerusalem. In fact, Lebanon cedar is mentioned 103 times in the Bible.

Later on, Emperor Hadrian prized the Cedars of God so much that he claimed the forests as imperial domain, temporarily halting their destruction.

The best specimens that remain have reached a height of 115 feet with trunks reaching 39 to 46 feet. There are 18 pockets of cedars remaining in Lebanon, but this particular forest is thought to be the oldest.

We left the Cedars of God UNESCO World Heritage Site and promptly arrived, after a short drive, at the Kahlil Gibran Museum.

This biographical museum 75 miles north of Beirut in Bsharri is dedicated to the Lebanese writer, philosopher, and artist Kahlil Gibran.

His best-known work “The Prophet,” which is still the top-selling poetry book of all-time (we’ll also provide a link to it in the description below).

The museum was an old cavern where hermits sought refuge since the 7th century.

While the poet was still in New York, he prepared to purchase the hermitage, the monastery, and the adjacent forest to make it his final resting place.

Founded in 1935, the Gibran Museum possesses 440 original paintings and drawings of Gibran and his tomb. It also includes belongings and furniture from his New York City studio as well as his private manuscripts.

You get the sense by the end of the exhibits that this was a man who completed his mission.

If you enjoyed this virtual tour of the Cedars of God, the Gibran Museum and our other stops, like this video and subscribe to our channel :)