Staff of Life? I’ve wanted to visit Niha ever since I first heard about... (Niha, Béqaa, Lebanon)
Staff of Life? I’ve wanted to visit Niha ever since I first heard about its temples - a total of four, in varying states of preservation – but it wasn’t until last week, that I finally made the trip. I’m not sure why it took me so long. I first tried to go about seventeen years ago but as I didn’t know that there are also four different places known as Niha in Lebanon, I picked the wrong one and ended up in the Shouf, where I at least got to poke around the remains of the fortress. Back in those practically pre-Internet days (I was on dial-up, which took f-o-r-ever), I assumed I had misheard, especially as when I asked friends, none of them knew of the Niha in the Beka’a, let alone of its temples. It wasn’t until I picked up a copy of Frank and Laure Skeele’s delightful tome, Highways and Byways of Lebanon, a couple of years later, that I discovered there were several Nihas and one of them did have temples. By then, I’d realised asking people in Beirut about far-flung places was generally pointless, as most didn’t know much beyond their own neighbourhood and perhaps the family village. These days, that’s changing as more and more Lebanese go out and discover the many marvels their tiny but fascinating country has to offer, marvels too often eclipsed by the daily struggle (not to mention the fauda) that increasingly is life in Lebanon. Niha was worth the wait. The village is delightful, set in rolling, almost Tuscan countryside and the main temple (dedicated to Hadad, Lord of Thunder), is in excellent condition and has some cracking carvings, including one of a temple priest and an inscription (now removed) to Hochmea, Hadad’s priestess, who ‘stopped eating bread for 20 years and lived to be 100’, ancient proof that the gluten-free life may be healthier, after all.
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