Discover Zahle: Culture and Hotels

If you are looking for a hotel in Zahle, cultural interests can be a useful starting point for planning your trip. Zahle itself is known for the Festival of the Vine and the city’s literary history. The wider Bekaa destination also offers Anjar, with its Umayyad urban planning, and the landscape of the Aammiq Wetland as additional points of interest. This can help you weigh whether events, archaeological urban design, or the landscape has the strongest connection to your trip.

Zahle: Festival and Literature

The Festival of the Vine is traditionally held in Zahle every September. Over several weeks, concerts, plays, readings, and art exhibitions are held daily. The programme brings together music, theatre, literature, and art in a cultural event that runs over an extended period. If you would like to plan your trip around this occasion, check the dates for the relevant edition in advance.

Zahle’s literary history is also connected with the city: fifty poets and writers were born in Zahle in the last century. These cultural perspectives offer different considerations for trip planning: the festival is traditionally held in September, while the literary history is linked to the poets and writers born in Zahle.

Bekaa: Anjar and Umayyad Urban Planning

Anjar was founded under the Umayyad caliphate of Walid Ibn Abd Al-Malak at the beginning of the 8th century and abandoned after a short time. The excavated remains are precisely dated evidence of Umayyad culture. Anjar is also considered an outstanding example of urban planning under the Umayyad caliphate in the 8th century.

The fortified, excavated city is rectangular in layout and measures 385 × 350 metres. It was surrounded by walls with forty towers. A main north–south axis and a less prominent east–west axis divide Anjar into four equal quarters. Its layout can therefore be understood at two scales: as a fortified rectangle and as a division into four sections by a main and a secondary axis.

The southeast quarter contains the caliph’s Great Palace and the mosque, on the highest part of the site. The orientation of the streets and the positioning of the buildings are thus part of a clearly structured urban layout.

More Bekaa highlights: Tower and Landscape

The wider Bekaa region also includes the Tower of Our Lady of Zahle and the Bekaa, as well as the Aammiq Wetland. An elevator in the tower leads to the bronze statue of the Virgin Mary. It is nine metres tall and was created by the Italian artist Pierotti. If you plan to use the elevator during your visit, check in advance whether it is currently in operation.

The Aammiq Wetland lies at an elevation of about 865 metres on the western side of the central Bekaa Valley, at the foot of the eastern slopes of the Barouk Mountains.

Discover more destinations: Baalbeck

For the wider travel overview: Bekaa.