Jeita Grotto and Harissa

My tour is booked and I wake up early in anticipation, earlier than I would wish given how busy the week has been.  I am ready in the lobby on the dot of 8am for my 8-8:30am pick up.  At 8:28am I pop out to the ladies’ and sure enough, when I get back, Francoise, my guide for the day is waiting in the lobby.  I am introduced to Francois, our driver (coincidence, I’m assured!) and as we head out of Beirut, I deduce that I am the only tourist today.

Francoise plunges into some history on our journey out of town, pointing out new buildings and where she went to school, now rows of shops and units, where there used to be fruit orchards and markets.  We stop for a quick photo op, once we’re in the hills, and before long arrive at Jeita Grotto which is a short 18km journey from Downtown Beirut.

Jeita Grotto is a subterranean cave complex made up of lower and upper grottoes, discovered in 1836 and 1958 respectively.  As we arrive just after 9am, we are the first tourists for the day and we catch the gondola with some employees arriving at work, for the short ride to the level of the upper grotto.  At the entrance I regret having to deposit my mobile phone in a locker.  I am handed the key but it is the lack of photos that I am disappointed about – they take their ‘no photo’ policy here very seriously.  We enter a door into a long cement tunnel and I feel like I might be being led into some sort of secret experiment.  It’s getting humid and as we open the door at what seems to be the end, the upper grotto opens out in front of us.

It’s an incredible sight.  This is the large cave of the dry section, (the first of three sections), where the stalactites and stalagmites are everywhere.  Some are tiny, some are enormous and in fact, the world’s longest stalactite measuring a whopping 8.2m is located here.  They hang like icicles from the ceiling and grow like columns against the walls.  My imagination runs wild.  There could be colonies of little people living in some of the cave like formations reminiscent of my recent trip to Uplistsikhe, although in miniature.  Or you could plunge them into the sea and they wouldn’t look out of place as coral reefs with colorful fish swimming in and out.  Tiny beginnings of new formations are pointed out to me on the floor near my feet.  Francoise explains they begin as chemicals in plants and the soil, carried by water they push through the roof of the cave and the drips, over hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, form the creations that we see before us today.

There is a hand of a giant, a colony of mushrooms, a mosque and religious icons that can be seen in the shadows and shapes of the rocks.

As we continue I hear the rush of water as we enter the second section, the wet section.  Although the upper grotto stretches for 2,130m into the Lebanese hillside, the tourist trail is limited to the first 750m of this in order to prevent too much ecological damage.  Even this far into the hillside I am surprised to be craning my next to look up at the top of the 106m high roof of the Red Chamber, named so for the color of the rock here.  This is indeed an incredible pearl of a natural wonder.

There are now a few people coming through behind us and I am somewhat surprised to learn that an average of 7,000 people per day visit the grottoes.  We come to the third section, which is not open to the public.  There is a large platform just before the closed area that is sometimes used to host orchestral performances, the caves forming their own natural acoustic perfection.

We turn back and retrace our steps to the entrance.  I spend some more time gaping around me at the incredible sights, unable to take it all in and once again lamenting being forced to leave my camera behind.  We then walk the short walk down to the lower grotto where we’re promptly boarded on a little boat.  The captain decides that we don’t need to wait for a larger group and we have our own little tour, this time around 500m into the 6.2km long grotto.    The clear blue of the sandy bottomed water is below us, the roof of the cave low enough to bend our heads and then all at once opening into another gaping cavern.  It’s a warm day outside, mid 30’s, but in here it’s a constant 16 degrees Celsius.  The water looks incredibly inviting, tempting me to jump overboard for a dip, until I learn that it’s a chilly 8 degrees.  I dip my hand in and sure enough it’s as cool and clear as it looks.  This ride doesn’t take long and maybe 5 minutes later we’re back.  There is a little garden to walk through and then we’re back in the car heading north along the coast again to Harissa.

Harissa is a small municipality north of Beirut and only a little further up the coast from Jeita Grotto.  However, to visit Harissa, you’re really only referring to one thing and that, specifically, is Our Lady of Lebanon.

Part shrine, part tourist attraction part pilgrimage site, this statue overlooking the bay of Jounieh, was completed in 1908.  The adjoining basilica has a shape reminiscent of a Lebanese cedar tree or a Phoenician ship.  It’s large, with an ability to seat 3,500 but which held more when Pope John-Paul II visited in the late 1990’s.  I has been more recently renovated and re-consecrated in 2013.

The idea of building a large church in the vicinity of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon was originally conceptualized in the sixties. The Shape of the Basilica is a cross between a Lebanese cedar tree and a Phoenician ship. Thanks to its hefty dimensions, 115 meters long, 67 meters wide, while its dome rises 62 meters above the ground, it stands out on top of a mountain that overlooks the famous city Jounieh. It can seat up to 3500 comfortably, all of whom can contemplate the original sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon through a twenty-meter wide and forty-two meter high glass window behind the altar. Since the 1980’s, many religious ceremonies have been celebrated in the Basilica, especially, during May, the holy month of Mary. The Pope John-Paul II visited the Basilica 10th of May 1997.  The Basilica was renovated in 2013 and was rededicated on the occasion of the consecration of Lebanon at the heart of the Virgin Mary, 16 July 2013.

I don’t go into the Basilica but I do take time to visit the little chapel under the statue and light a candle in one of the shrines in the surrounding park.  I also climb to the top which is perhaps the apex of the pilgrimage and also offers a particularly spectacular vantage point to take in the view of the hillside and the bay beyond.

From here we take the gondola lift and the Téléphérique, from the top of the hill at Harissa, down to the city of Jounieh.  More great views and time to reflect on this somewhat impromptu pilgrimage.  However, the real highlight so far is just how unexpectedly delightful the tour is.  And that is with the highlight, Byblos, still to come!

Good To Know

I was lucky enough to have a very knowledgeable friend arrange my tour for me.  However, if you’re looking for a fantastic tour guide, look no further than Francoise.  I found her through Kurban Tours who have daily tour schedules for all the fantastic places that Lebanon has to explore.

Would I Return?

Yes.  Most certainly to Beirut and definitely to Lebanon.  I wouldn’t feel the need to cover the same places again but would certainly love to check out some of the other major historic and cultural sites such as Baalbek, Tyre and the Cedars.