Bearing an Aramaic name, this town lies in the South
Beqaa district forty-five miles from the capital Beirut
at over three thousand feet above sea level. It may
be reached through Shtaura and Jeb-Jannine, through
El-Masnaa, or through Kafraya and Jeb-Jannine.
South-east of the Beqaa plain, a couple of miles from
Jannine, is an ancient artificial mound, one of the
highest in the valley, called Tel Boot, the Hillock,
formed of levels that have accumulated over the centuries
and hide remains from times of Phoenician, Pharaonic,
Hellenic and Arab domination. The strata of ancient
occupation cover from Neolithic times and the fifth
millennium B.C. down to the present day.
It is easy to understand that this village is full
of remains and of mysteries. Archeologists have made
one discovery after another, particularly the team
of German scientists which undertook thorough research
of remains starting with the Stone Age and then the
Bronze Age, and so one down to modern times. They
worked through the nineteen-fifties down to the ‘eighties
and suspended operations only when oblige to do so
by the fighting in Lebanon.
The results obtained from the excavations were spectacular
and very important for the history of the region.
They revealed many urban structures including defense
systems, temples, palaces, dwellings, workshops, and
burial-grounds. They brought up pottery and domestic
appliances, ornaments and luxury items and above all
records written on clay tablets. These confirmed the
identity of Tel el-Kamed as the site of Kumidi, a
town mentioned in the fourteenth century in the Tel
el-Amarna letters. This seems to have been the center
of an Egyptian colony in the region. Remains of the
Phoenician town of Kamed el-Lowz suggest trade with
the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. As well
as this historic “tel”, on the mountain slopes nearby
there are grottoes and cellars where one may find
shards of pottery engraved with the Phoenician alphabet.
But life on the Tel seems to have slowed down during
the time of Persian dominance. For reasons that are
not evident, the inhabitants decided to move further
south to the present site of the village, which in
fact apparently covers the ground of the settlement
existing during Persian, Greek and Roman times. It
is to the south of the village that one finds the
burial grounds of classical times.
There are too the quarries used by the Caliph al-Waleed
ben Abdel Malek for the building of Anjar on the eighth
century.
The village is very agreeable and gives a wide view
over the plain in the valley. There is the mosque
of Anas ben Malek built in 1883, lake Baydar, a forest,
a public garden and the Habs (Prison) grotto. Farming
is prosperous thanks to the orchards, woodland and
springs of water, and from June till September the
village is a summer resort.
Every year the town authorities organize a three-day
festival, with displays of art and handicrafts and
the sale of the many kinds of local agricultural products
for winter provisions such as borghol, kishk, liqueurs
and jams.
Joseph Matar - Translation from the French
: Kenneth Mortimer
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