Tripoli: Mosque El Kabir, the old souk and the fortress
Tripoli is the second largest city in Lebanon, lying 88 km north of the capital. It is the administrative centre for the whole of North Lebanon.
In the days of the Phoenicians, one thousand years before Christ, it extended only over the small headland, 4.2 km long by 2.5 km wide, known today as El Mina, or The Port. It is protected by the sea and on the east side by a wall running the length of the neck of land, making the place impregnable. The ancient Greeks called it Tripolis (the Three Cities), because of the walled trading depots belonging to the three associated cities of Tyre, Sidon (Saida) and Rouad. It was a commercial centre no less important than any of the other Levantine trading posts. Conquered just as they were first by the Assyrians in 980 B.C., then by the Greeks under Alexander in 332 B.C., and after them by the Romans under Pompey in 66 B.C., it was for one thousand years a very animated town, highly urbanised with its paved streets bordered by colonnades, its theatre, its schools, its famous library containing 100,000 works, and its temples. Then came the Arab conquest in 705 A.D. and like the other cities of the East Mediterranean coast, for four hundred years it slumbered.
In 1099 the Francs arrived under the leadership of Count Saint-Gilles of Toulouse and the city came to life again for a period of 180 years. Seized yet again, by the Mamlouks (1289-1516) and then by the Ottomans (1516-1919), its fortifications were demolished and it became no more than a small coastal harbour. The Tower of the Lions, an enormous cube 28 by 21 metres two storeys high with a parapet, is the only defensive work left from the time of the Mamlouks.
However, in the year 1100 Count Saint-Gilles of Toulouse put up a fortress 3 km to the east, on a hill bordering the river Abu Ali. It was around this "Sanjil" Castle that a new town grew up, the present-day Tripoli, which will be seen to be no more 900 years old. Conquered by the Mamlouks under Sultan Qalaoun in 1289 and then by the Ottomans under Selim 1st in 1516, it presents wide modern streets and by way of contrast busy bazaars, or "souqs", with spinning mills, foundries, soap-works textile factories, pastry shops and jewellers'. Old Tripoli preserves its old oriental charm with its narrow streets, souqs and alleys and with its friendly people! Tripoli is particularly well known for its Arab pastries. No trip into town would be complete without a visit to one of the welcoming vendors of confectionary. The ruins of Sanjil Castle still rise impressively despite its checkered history of demolition and reconstruction by different conquerors, notable among whom was the Mamlouk Prince Kurdji, who carried out extensive restorations in 1307. On the western side of the hill, the Francs built a romanesque church named Saint Mary of the Tower, destined to become after some alteration the Great Mosque. Near this stands the Koranic school, the Madrassa Qartauviy. More to the north is the Es-Saboun (soap) Market, Khan El Kayyatin (the Tailors), and a maze of narrow streets, bazaars rich in oriental colour and perfumes of eastern spices. Between the two cities we have described there stretches an immense orange grove, 3 km long, whose praises have been declaimed in verse.
- Mosque El Kabir: >> View Movie << (2002-04-01)
- The old souk: >> View Movie << (2002-04-01)
- The fortress: >> View Movie << (2001-04-01)
