On the way from Beirut to the extreme North, at
124km from the capital, arriving in Akkar and climbing
to an altitude of some 1,200 or 1,400m, and just
before reaching the historic forest of Kammoua’a,
one comes upon the village of Fnaydek.
The name comes from a Greek word meaning an inn
or khan, translated into Arabic first as fundoc,
hotel, and then as fneidek, a little hotel. The
high mountains of Kammoua’a surround the place with
a variety of closely clustered trees, in particular
the azer. The village itself is typically local
and picturesque, with an old water-driven mill,
venerable dwellings, the remains of tombs and a
room hewn out of the rock.
There is also the citadel of Akouba, with inscriptions
from the time of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon
(625-605 B.C.), founder of the Babylonian dynasty
that destroyed the empire of the Assyrians.
There are a number of sites of natural beauty:
The Spring of the Girls, Ain el-Benat
The typical dense forest of al-Azer (virgin)
The Spring of Houat Cliff
The Spring of Fneidek
The Spring of el-Sadd Dam
A plain with every kind of fruit and vegetable
Wells, cedar trees and woodland groves
Mount Tranta with its many historic caves
Mount Qorneh, the Corner
As for tourist, social, cultural, and sporting activities,
despite the distance from the capital these are remarkably
well organized. There are inns, traditional workshops
making ploughshares, a blacksmith’s and a sports club
to keep the young people of the village healthily
occupied.
In Fneydek one can
still find elderly people who speak Ottoman Turkish,
for the Ottoman occupation forces wished to Islamize
the land by installing Turkish colonists in this
region where there were Christians and Muslims living
in perfect harmony.
