The Umayyad Ruins of Anjar
Anjar is not the only attractive spot in its area. When you visit it, look for the attractions surrounding it.
Look for the Anjar Spring, a few meters from the Umayyad town. Besides being a beautiful picnic area, it is surrounded by a variety of ruins suggesting that a Greco-Roman city once flourished around it. Excavations have not started in earnest here, but when they do, there is a good chance that they will unearth the lost "Chalcis of Lebanon", otherwise known as Zobah - at one time the capital of a large Aramean kingdom which existed one thousand years before Christ, stretching from the Euphrates to the Yarmouk River (some still believe that the "Chalcis of Lebanon" is somewhere below Umayyad Anjar, but Lebanon's Antiquities Department thinks otherwise).
Look, also, for Karak Nuh, a few kilometers west of the ruins. Here, legend says, a large lake once covered the now fertile plain and it was there that Noah's ark landed after the flood.
For the ultimate in Roman splendor, visit Baalbek, where the world's largest Roman columns stand intact and a series of temples to the various gods bring antiquity to life before your eyes. Baalbek can be reached by the road that leads north from the little town of Chtaura, which you must pass on your eastward drive to Anjar.
Chtaura, in fact, is an excellent place to stop for lunch and sample the delicious national dishes of Lebanon in friendly restaurants (Zahleh, halfway between Chtaura and Baalbek, is famous for its river-bank cafes).
