Lebanon in a Picture

Cresting. Perched on the curling crest of low cliff at the entrance to the... (Amioûn, Liban-Nord, Lebanon)

Cresting. Perched on the curling crest of low cliff at the entrance to the... (Amioûn, Liban-Nord, Lebanon) Cresting. Perched on the curling crest of low cliff at the entrance to the northern Lebanese town of Amioun, the location of the church of St. John, also known as al-Sheer, is less precarious that it might at first appear. Like Mseilha Castle a bit further up the coast, it’s one of those places that I’ve driven past a thousand times – in this usually case on my way up to Ehden or the Cedars – and every time, said I will stop and get out. This time, I did and although we didn’t make it up into the church itself, I was able to get a closer look at the remarkable cliff on which it sits. Those holes you see are rock-cut tombs, part of a necropolis that probably dates back to 4000BC, although you’ll also read claims that they are up to 24,000 years old because of the trove of prehistoric potsherds and arrowheads that were uncovered around the base of the cliff. Clearly, the area has been inhabited for a very long time and some even claim Amioun as the oldest inland village in the country. As it’s likely that at least some of the 28 tombs began life as natural caves, it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that they may have been in use for 20K+ years but Palaeolithic humans did not work caves with tools, let alone cut squares chambers into rock faces to bury their dead, which means that in its current form, the necropolis probably belongs to Graeco-Phoenician times. The tombs are all linked to one another and apparently, there is a connection that leads into the church, though whether this can be accessed by the public, I can’t say. As there’s another church nearby which is covered in Byzantine-style frescoes (St. Phocas), I shall make sure I visit properly next time and you can be sure that if I get the chance, I shall be poking around those tombs, too.
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