Thursday, May 27, 2010

Jeita Grotto

The Jeita  Grotto is located 18 kilometers northeast of Beirut.  This grotto has one of the world's most impressive agglomerations of stalactites and stalagmites.

We took a gondola to get to the upper cave.



The caverns extend about 6 kilometers back into the mountains.  However, the entire cavern is not open to the public.



Tom and "The Guardian of Time" - a sculpture by Lebanese artist Tony Farah.  We were calling the statue Mr. Stalactite man until I just found out his real name.



After the upper cavern, we had to walk outside to get into the lower cavern.  We had to ride a boat in order to explore this cavern.  This lower cavern is closed every winter because it is flooded by the rising levels of the Nahr-el- Kabl (or Dog River).

During the civil war, these caves were used as ammunition storage.  Luckily , the caves showed no damage from this.

After visiting South Africa, the guineafowl is my new favorite bird.  I just love their markings.



Since cameras were not allowed inside of the caverns, I took the pictures off of their website (http://www.jeitagrotto.com/).

3 comments:

Antonia Rosina said...

How utterly, completely beautiful Dawn! I love stalactites and stalagmites. There was a cave in Derbyshire that I used to visit when I was a kid. It was called Treak Cliff Cavern and was filled with these mesmerizing structures. The sheep are adorable. YOui must be having lots of fun!

Notes from Noël said...

hey great^pics

PRETTY IN PARIS said...

These are such great shots!