Tourists ruin so many places. You know the feeling of getting to a famous place that you’ve always wanted to see. Finally, the Eiffel Tower! The Taj Mahal! The Grand Canyon! Except the view is actually a mob of tourists, with a nice sight in the background. You try to tune it out, but you have to admit it: It’s disappointing.
But tourists do not ruin Baalbek – tourists fear Baalbek. Great news! Because Baalbek is home to the Temple of Bacchus, one of the world’s best-preserved Roman temples. We were in its glorious remains alone because Hezbollah controls this town and Israeli drones periodically strike its surroundings.
With us here was Ahmed, a local poet and Hezbollah supporter. During the October 2024 war, Ahmed said Israeli missiles struck in the temple’s immediate vicinity, but the temple itself was not touched. Those who want to vilify Israel say its willingness to bomb next to the temple proves that it is willing to destroy the temple – a UNESCO World Heritage site. Those who want to defend Israel say the fact that it did not bomb the temple proves its benign intentions.
Ahmed does not believe Israel has benign intentions.
On the walk from the temple to Ahmed’s office were many reminders of the fact that we were deep in Hezbollahland: Iranian flags, posters of Hassan Nasrallah, images of “martyrs,” portraits of Qassem Soleimani and Ayatollah Khamenei. In a dense downtown block, I noticed that the first-floor corner of a building had caved in.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to RocaNews to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.