Dog River

Beirut, the probable centre for your stay in the Lebanon, has plenty of hotels, ranging from 5-star luxury to fairly grotty places that don't merit any sort of a rating. It is probably wise to book ahead and our travel agent in the Middle East, Dakkak Tours will be happy to help.

Travel in the Lebanon is most conveniently done in a hired car. The roads are good, the traffic is no more mad than anywhere else in the Middle East, and charges are reasonable. On the other hand, the locals are not always friendly and on a recent trip, when we filmed the video Solomon's Kingdom we twice had our tyres slashed by people intending to rob us. It may, in the long run, prove cheaper to hire a taxi by the day.

In ancient times, when rainfall in the region was heavier, the Dog River to the north of Beirut was a substantial barrier to progress up or down the coast and many of the conquerors who made it this far commemorated their achievement by carving a record of their campaign in the rocks above the river. Among those whose inscriptions have been found are:

  • 1. Egyptian square headed 7'6" x 3'8" Rameses II dedicated to Ptah
  • 2. Egyptian square headed 7'6" x 3'8" Rameses II dedicated to Ra
  • 3. Egyptian square headed 7'4" x 3'8" Rameses II dedicated to Ammon
  • 4. Assyrian square headed 6'7" x 4'5" Assur-ris-ilim 1140 BC
  • 5. Assyrian square headed 5'1" x 2'4" Tiglath-pileser 1140 BC
  • 6. Assyrian round headed 6'1" x 2'6" Assur-nasir-pal 885 BC
  • 7. Assyrian round headed 6'4" x 2'9" Shalmaneser 860 BC
  • 8. Assyrian round headed 7'4" x 3'8" Sennacherib 702 BC
  • 9. Assyrian round headed 6' x 3'1" Esarhaddon 681 BC
  • 10. Nebuchadnezzar II 605 BC
  • 11. General Marchand
  • 12. Napoleon III

The Dog River site is just to the north of Beirut and the turn off is well-marked, coming immediately after a double tunnel on the coast motorway. Try not to miss it, as coming back is not terribly easy. The river gets its name from the statue of a dog or wolf, which stood on a pedestal at the top of the cliff. Its open mouth was so arranged that when the wind blew from the west, a howling noise was heard. Eventually the Arabs gathered in a band and hurled it down into the sea. Near a pedestal on the modern road is a fragment of a Roman milestone: the wolf stood nearby.

Drive down to the beautiful Turkish bridge over the Dog River. There is a restaurant here which does big business at night, so don't expect a meal if you turn up in the morning. After photographing the bridge, notice the long inscription in Kufic script low down on the other side of the road. Some attribute this to Saladin, others claim that it is by Sultan Selim in 1517.

Drive back towards the motorway and stop after the next inscription, carved in a rock that bulges out over the road in a most alarming way. This is by the Roman emperor Caracalla. Beyond it are badly weathered cuneiform inscriptions by various Assyrian kings, a high up inscription commemorating a French general, one low down below road level erected by Napoleon III who sent a military force to intervene after the Syrian Muslims massacred thousands of Christians. The result of his intervention was the founding of the state of Lebanon. Another inscription was erected by General Marchand and two new white inscriptions record the exploits of the Lebanese army during the civil war.

The final inscription beside the road is a modern one, recalling the exploits of the Australian Camel Corps during the First World War, when they cooperated with Lawrence of Arabia to capture Damascus. However you must now walk on to the motorway and up a flight of stairs to a pathway above the tunnel.

As you round the corner on the other side of the tunnel there is an inscription in Latin which appears to be by Baldwin I, Crusader king of Jerusalem. Further up are two more inscriptions by Assyrian kings, and beside them are Egyptian inscriptions. Follow the path to the top of the hill. The two small obelisks are modern and once bore distance and direction markers to places like Cairo, New York and Sydney. Carry on beyond them and the path descends to a final Assyrian inscription with an Egyptian one right beside it.

There is, apparently, an inscription by Nebuchadnezzar, but I must admit that I have not yet found it. According to the books I have read, it is on the other side of the river (the north side) and is located immediately below a stone aqueduct that carries water to a local farmer. I believe that "aqueduct" refers to nothing more than a stone-lined ditch cut into and built along the hillside. If anyone can give more exact directions to this inscription, I will be grateful.

Each inscription is numbered by a cement plaque with Roman numerals. Unfortunately I have not found any publication explaining which inscription is which. I enquired in the restaurant, which I thought would be the obvious place for stocks to be held (and sold) but the chap there, who spoke very little English, assured me that the only inscription was the one by Saladin outside his establishment. It is really most remiss of the Lebanese Antiquities Authority to have neglected this very important site in this way.