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To
go to Nabatiye, drive from Sidon to
Zahrani, Msayleh, Zefta, Dayr
Zahrani, and Habbush.
Nabatiye is the most
important town of the Jabal Amel
area and the chief center of both
the mohafazat and the caza.
Nabatiye enjoys an important
economic and cultural positoin.
Every Monday is market day and
traders and visitors from
neighboring villages gather in the
city center to exchange their goods.
In Nabatiye are branches of
several banks, hospitals,
restaurants and cultural and
touristic clubs, like the al
Shqif Club.
Every year Nabatiye
commemorates the Battle of Karbala
to remember the martyrdom of Iman al
Husayn.
On this occasion, tens of
thousands of visitors, mainly of the
Shiite community, come to
participate in this religious
ceremony.
Nabatiye is the hometown of several
learned men of international reknown.
The theologian, sheikh Aref
al Zein, and the scientist, Kamal al
Sabbah, are among the most famous.
Nabatiye has two historic
mosques:
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the
first one was built in the 16th
century and lies in the town center;
and the second one, known as “the
Mosque of the Prophet,” dates to
the Mamluk period and is located in
Nabatiye al Fawqa. Arnun lies 7 km
south-east of Nabatiye.
On top of a hill overlooking
the southern Beqaa to Damascus
stands a fortress known to Arab
travellers as Shqif Arnun, Shqif
being a Syriac term meaning high
rock.
Western travellers call it
Belfort or Beaufort.
At first sight, it seems
inaccessible, but it can be easily
reached from the village of Arnun.
In front of the fortress the
visitor will see a large water
cistern and the ruins of an ancient
village contemporary with the
citadel.
There is no direct evidence
of the building date or the builder
of this castle.
According to William of Tyre,
it was erected by the Crusaders, but
some scholars are of the opinion
that it is older.
It has been suggested that
the monument was already standing
when the Crusaders arrived.
It has also been argued that
it was first built in the Late Roman
or Byzantine period, later restored
and enlarged by the Arabs.
The Crusaders restructured
and fortified it and it became the
important fortress in Lebanon.
The Crusader king, Foulques
d’Anjou, conquered it from the
ruler of Damascus and gave it to the
Crusader rulers of Sidon in 1138.
Salaheddin besieged it for
two years and was able to storm it
in 1140.
The Crusader regained control
of the citadel in 1190 after they
had signed an agreement with Al
Salih Ismail, ruler of Damascus.
In 1260, it was bought by the
templars from the Sidonian prince
and it remained their property until
its conquest in 1268 by the Mamluk
Sultan, Al Zahir Baybars.
The Templars built there a
small fort called Chteau
Neuf.
Fakhreddin restored and
fortified it at the beginning of the
17th century, but the
governor of Damascus, Hafez Pasha,
besieged it and partly destroyed it
with his artillery.
The restoration of the monument was
initiated by the Lebanese
Directorate of Antiquities in the
late 1970’s but it soon had to
stop because of repeated Israeli
bombardments.
The Crusader castle has been
under Israeli occupation since 1982.
The fortress lies on a 700
meters high rocky mound.
Its plan had to follow the
relief and topography of the site
and resulted in a quasi-rectangular
shape.
To the east, it overlooks the
300m deep Litani River valley.
On the other three sides, it
is surrounded by a moat.
In spite of its very bad
state of preservation, some of its
elements are sill standing and easy
to identify.
On both ends of its
well-preserved southern wall rise
two beautiful towers.
The wall is built on top of a
glacis covered with flat stones and
covering all the rocky platform on
which the fort stands.
The monument originally had
three stories, but the third one has
been totally destroyed.
The main entrance leads to the
ground floor and is located on the
eastern side of the building.
It is protected by three
towers, on top of which a large
number of fighters could stand.
In the south-eastern corner
is a second entrance leading to the
upper floor and, finally, a third
entrance in the south-western angle
surmounted by machicolations leads
to the center of the main courtyard.
Inside, the castle is almost
completely ruined and only the
eastern wall, entrance and staircase
of a big tower in the middle of the
western side survive.
On the eastern side is a 13th
century vaulted building, either a
church or an assembly hall.
On the northern side are the
remains of two towers and of a large
cistern which occupies part of the
moat surrounding the fortress
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Major
Cities - Nabatieh
