A Visit to Saida

I went with some friends to visit the city of Saida (Sidon), south of Beirut. It has an old sea fort, which was our first stop.

This picture was taken from the top of the building on the left side. It was fun to climb up and see the view from up there.

After the sea fort we visited this old house turned museum. This is a central room, and between the two doorway arches is a birdcage housing several canaries.

Here's me lounging in the lifestyle to which I'd like to become accustomed.

We stopped at the Church of St. Nicholas. If you look closely, you can tell that the wall on the right side was actually built down the center of the church. It was built to divide the church when there was some kind of division between orthodox and non-orthodox believers.

The meat market.

The next stop was a soap factory turned museum. It's a beautiful musem that demonstrates how soap used to be made. This photo shows large blocks of soap before they are cut into the small bricks. The hammer in front of the woman is a stamp to put the symbol of the company on the soap.

In addition to the museum, we toured the family home of the owners of the soap factory. I loved these wall decorations. They look like they were taken from some old ruins and turned into wall hangings.

the ultimate family tree

A beautiful home decoration. I'd love to have one like this, but in this apartment I don't know where I would put it. But maybe I'll buy one just before I move away from here.