THE LEBANON

foreign [Music] [Music] where would you like to fly to where the East begins or to the sophistication of Europe to sand or snow the edge of the desert or the blue sea to French cuisine at its finest or Eric meze in a fishing Village castles casinos mosques mountains ski slopes belly dancers five-star hotels or adobe huts The Swinging or the Sunderland unfasten your seatbelts This Plane brings you to the mall [Applause] all those things and More in one country 120 miles long by 35 wide the welcome mat of the Middle East the Lebanon Beirut capital of the Lebanon where a quarter of the people live is one of the great Crossroads of the world the country was under French mandate from the end of World War One to the end of World War II it absorbed the French genius for gracious living gave it a narab flavor and Beirut became a kind of Arabian Nights Parish [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Lebanese learned a lot from the French not to mention the Greeks Romans Egyptians Turks British Americans and others but they had no need to learn civilization they had always been civilized referring trade to war and education to ignorance the Phoenicians who sailed as far as Britain long before the Romans and traded for tin with the skinclad natives for the ancestors of these energetic people their Traders crop up in the Old Testament and in Homer and they have never gone out of business foreign [Music] perhaps has been in business longest of all [Music] the Crusaders who built the castle which dominates the harbor were not the only ones to attack siteon Persians burned it Alexander the Great occupied it Queen Victoria's Navy bombarded it each time sidon cleared up the mess and carried on [Music] the target of the Hebrew prophet's wrath has more naked history in a few Acres than almost any city on earth Phoenician Egyptian Greek Roman Byzantine and Arab civilizations have been lovingly laid bare to the Mediterranean Sun [Music] even the dead seem friendly to the life around them [Music] if the lebanon's coastal towns have survived for thousands of years in their Biblical land flowing with milk and honey it's thanks to the tall mountains at their backs defending them from Land would surprise and supplying them with water tough but hospitable the mountain folk go their own way remind them that the ravenous goat was made illegal in the Lebanon a few years ago they'll say tell that to the goat [Music] monks used to live in those holes in the rocks [Music] yeah when Solomon asked Hiram of tire for Cedar to build his Temple Hiram wrote back we will cut wood out of Lebanon as much as Thou shalt need experts say some of these Cedars may have been a thousand years old even then favorite Lebanese meal is the Messi a variety of small dishes in which you pick and choose our act a middle eastern cousin to Pano is the traditional drink to have with it a regional delicacy is tunny or mullet roll pickled in Brine and vinegar and if that's not your taste no one's offended with Messi you take what you like and you leave what you don't the same could be said of the Lebanon you could have a dozen different holidays and never repeat yourself but one place everyone goes to is balbec the city of the sun god nobody knows how old it is but the glory which remains crowned by the Temple of Jupiter dates from Roman times and took more than three centuries to build balbeck is not just a splendid ruin every year from July to mid-september it's the setting for the international ball back Festival started in 1955 by a group of Lebanese and French enthusiasts against This Magnificent background it presents drama music and dancing for many cultures including of course that of the Lebanon itself [Music] oh yeah [Music] [Music] [Applause] Lebanese art reflects today as well as yesterday modern sculptor Michelle Babu at work in his rakana village Studio foreign a model of Middle Eastern architecture a Palace built early in the 19th century by Emir Becker who is absolute ruler of the Lebanon for more than 50 years [Music] thank you if this looks European it's only the East getting its own back or western horse racing was founded on Arab bloodstock Beirut Racecourse has meetings every Sunday and on most holidays [Applause] for their time the Phoenicians knew everything there was to know about the sea but this had to wait for the internal combustion engine many Beirut hotels large and small are right on the seafront and have an international reputation with gourmets and some worshipers alike [Music] the lebanon's coast is ideal for boats whether sail or power of the rich man's yacht to the tiny dinghy the weather favors the Sailor for most of the year and there's always a harbor ancient or modern within comfortable reach or at least a bay please [Music] dinghy racing is fairly new here but already there are clubs up and down the coast [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign there is Choice even the golf club offers an escape for members of the family who don't like golf [Music] a simple source of power for pumping sea water and plenty of Sun to evaporate it is all you need to make salt you're a Tripoli a port much younger than Tire or sidon having been founded a mayor 2 700 years ago thank you oldest of them all is biblos in fact it's one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world two thousand years and more before Christ it overshadowed tire and Satan today it's a sleepy Village of about a thousand people serving excellent Seafood [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] wherever in the Lebanon you have spent the day you can return to Beirut when the sun sets and most visitors do just that for at nightfall this unique blend of my mouth and Haruna Rasheed this neon little laddin's cave this marriage of French deity with Arab magic comes truly into its own [Music] thank you whether you want to gamble or dance dine or drink join in or just watch or all of them in turn be in Beirut when the lights go up but don't expect to be early to bed [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause]