Anjar

`Anjar is a city of the Lebanon in the plain of the Bekaa, about halfway on the road of Beirut to Damas. Its population is estimated at approximately 2 500 inhabitants and it is primarily Arménie.

The site is currently identified with Chalcis sub Libanum or Chalcis of Cœlé-Syria , but without formal evidence. Majdel `Anjar with a few km in the South-west of `Anjar where the ruins of a Roman temple are and which was the site of a battle for the independence of Lebanon in the Othoman empire in 1618 is also a site suggested for the site of Chacis.

“Anjar was the example of a center of trade inside the grounds: it is located at the intersection of two important roads that driving from Beirut to Damas in the West-east direction and the North-South road crossing all the Bekaa and driving of Homs towards Baalbek then the south of Lebanon.

History

Towards the end of the 1st century, with the favor of the disorders which marked the end of the Séleucides, the Arab S Ituréens occupied the Bekaa and the North of Lebanon and founded a vast kingdom whose political capital was Chalcis and the religious capital Héliopolis-Baalbek. These Ituréens tried to extend their capacity on all the Western slope of Lebanon.

When Pumped, towards 64/63, seizes the area, it reorganizes the administration of the area, a certain number of cities are withdrawn from the principality ituréenne.

In 1618, the changes with the head of the Ottoman Empire then allow the triumphal return of Fakhr AD-DIN in exile in Tuscany. It reconquers its territories gradually and takes again all Lebanon even beyond the borders of mountains. In 1623, the Othoman vizier of Damas, Kara Mustafa Pasha attacks Fakhr AD-DIN. The confrontation with place with `Anjar and in spite of force in lower quantity, Fakhr AD-DIN carries it reinforcing its position in Lebanon. It benefitted from it to extend its capacity to Gaza to the south and Alep in North. The following year the Sultan Murad IV will recognize his authority on this territory. Ten years later same Murad IV will make stop and carry out Fakhr AD-DIN.

Recent history

Anjar was the HQ of the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon and was an illegal center of sorting and detention, controlled by Syrian secret services.

Following the discovery of a mass grave, the Syria was shown finger. An investigation was carried out and it was concluded that it was an Othoman cemetery . The oldest body goes back to 50 years.

The site of `Anjar

`Anjar is the single site of Lebanon dating from the time Omeyyade. `Anjar was discovered by the archeologists only at the end of the years 1940. `Anjar differs from the other archeological sites of Lebanon which can be sometimes prevailed of an uninterrupted history since their foundation at our days. `Anjar appears to have lived only a few decades at the beginning of the 7th century of our era. `Anjar preserves however its mystery: is it built on the site of the ancient city Chalcis?

Of rectangular plan, on the model of the city or the Roman camp on a rectangle of 370 m out of 310 Mr. the city is surrounded by wall a seven meters height and two meters thickness, confined thirty-six turns and of four circular turns of angle. This enclosure is built stones limestones forming the facings interior and outside, filled of a filling of rough stones, stones and of mortar.

The two main roads, decorated colonnades, are cut under a tetrapylon as to Palmyre or Apamée. The city has all appearances of a Roman city and that although it is the work of the caliph Omeyyade Al-Walid I {{er}}. The mystery of this city is that she lived only which decades. The archeologists succeeded in giving again life with this beautiful residence in the years 1950.

Principal monuments

the Large palace which was the first monument discovered in 1949 whose wall and the principal arcades were rebuilt.
the Mosque measuring 45 m on 32 m located at the North of the palate, has of two public entries and an entry deprived for the caliph.
the Petit Palais covered by rich person reasons in the pure tradition gréco-Roman. This monument kept its original state.
Thermal baths built on the Roman model.

Other points of interest

The source which gives its name to the city locates just at the variation of the ruins and constitutes a pleasant site for the piquenique one. The excavations do nothing but start on this site and a certain number of elements suggest the presence of Greek and Roman constructions: perhaps old Chalcis but this site is perhaps also that of old the Zobah. Zobah was the capital of a kingdom araméen juqu' with the 1st century. This kingdom sometimes extended until the Euphrate towards the East and to the river Yarmûk towards the South. There still the identification of Zobah with Chalcis/`Anjar is not proven.

Finally it ya the place called Karak Nuh which, on the site of an old lake and according to the local legend, would be the place where would be failed the Arche of Noah, and where one finds it fall from Noah.

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