THE NATIONAL (19/5/2023)
Draped with snow, the ancient cedars on the mountain slopes of northern Lebanon spread their evergreen branches like arms welcoming visitors. On Mount Makmel, the country’s oldest cedar grove towers over Wadi Qadisha, the “Holy Valley”, where monasteries carved into cliffs for centuries were a place of refuge and meditation.
Known locally as Arz al-Rab or “Cedars of God”, the forest has been under the protection of the Maronite Church, which built a small chapel in the centre of the grove, where a mass is celebrated each year to honour the trees. Some of the cedars there are more than 30 metres tall and 2,000 years old, their roots anchored deep in the rocky soil.
“The forest is considered a sacred place,” says Cherbel Tawk, a member of the nonprofit Friends of the Cedar Forest Committee. In 1998, the cedar grove was added to the list of Unesco World Heritage together with the Qadisha Valley.
“The cedars are mentioned in the bible at least 75 times for their majesty and beauty. It is said the temple of Solomon was built with cedar wood,” Tawk says. In the Old Testament, cedars are referred to as “the first of trees” and the “glory of Lebanon”. In the 16th century, there were so many pilgrims visiting the Cedars of God that the Maronite Church issued an edict threatening to excommunicate visitors who damaged them.
For centuries, the ancient giants have been visited by travellers, pilgrims and poets. Inspired by the majestic trees, artists composed songs, paintings and poems. Some, like the English poet Lord Byron and the French politician and poet Alphonse de Lamartine, decided to leave their mark and carved their initials into the trunks (…)
Photos by Walid Sader