Lebanon in a Picture

A River Runs Through It. Or rather, dozens of rivers. From roughly... (El Qemmâmîne, Liban-Nord, Lebanon)

A River Runs Through It. Or rather, dozens of rivers. From roughly... (El Qemmâmîne, Liban-Nord, Lebanon) A River Runs Through It. Or rather, dozens of rivers. From roughly Baskinta northwards, Mount Lebanon in April is a land of water. Snowmelt swells streams, turns springs into geysers and the seasonal rivers, which run dry by late June, are in full flow. Still chilled by winter’s kiss, they gush over roads, submerge tracks and flood hollows, so a walk at this time of year generally means having taking your boots off at least once. That, or gambling on whether they are as waterproof as the maker claims. It’s not uncommon to find small platforms in the middle of rivers, which people picnic on in the summer and if you look closely and you’ll notice that there’s an overturned stool in the foreground of this shot. I’m not exactly sure where it was taken, though I have a feeling it was somewhere around Qammamine up in the hinterlands of Denniyeh, but I do remember wondering how it got there, because there didn’t appear to be villages nearby. I suppose it might have been dumped into the river because sadly, many of Lebanon’s rivers are used to dispose of rubbish that should be taken care of by the country’s underfunded municipalities. But as we passed by, I decided rather romantically, that it was there deliberately and that it had been overturned as the river rose. It was not evidence of environmental unawareness, I thought, it was there because someone had decided this would be pleasant to sit, shaded by the trees, with your feet cooling in the water and watch the world go by.
by wsinghbartlett / Instagram