BAALBEK Bustan Nassif Conservation and Presentation of a Medieval Town Quarter

BAALBEK Bustan Nassif Conservation and presentation of a medieval town quarter

1 Cover front: View of the Bustan Nassif area before the conservation in 2009 (K. Rheidt) World cultural heritage site Baalbek Cover back: View of the Bustan Nassif area after the conservation in 2018 (DAI, J. Nádor) Text: Margarete van Ess on the basis of H. Lehmann, Baalbek in nachantiker Zeit. Unter- suchungen zur Stadtbaugeschichte vom 5. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, Orient-Archäologie 35 Roman sanctuaries which were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site (Rahden/Westf. 2016) listBaalbek in 1984. is known However, worldwide from a historicalfor its magnificent point of view, and well-preservedBaalbek has lot more Translation: P. Larsen to offer, such as a past of almost 10.000years. Humans are known to have Layout: C. Krug settled on a hill beneath the Jupiter sanctuary as early as 7200 BC. The site remained inhabited until the construction of the enormous temple complex in the late 1st century BC. At this stage, the settlement shifted to the area of the old town, where it has remained until today. By the end of the second century, the town received the Roman city rights and rose to its heyday in late antiquity (3rd to 6th centuries AD). During the Islamic Middle Ages, Baalbek was an important commercial and cultural centre on an interregional scale.

Project run by the Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban (DGA) and the German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI). In cooperation with the Conseil du Développement et de la Reconstruction, Liban (CDR) Funding: German Federal Foreign Office and German Archaeological Institute Beit Nassif and Sanctuary of Jupiter 2005 2 (DAI, I. Wagner) 3 Baalbek in the Middle Ages Aerial photograph 1936 In 635, Baalbek came under the control of the Muslim conquerors. While (IFPO Damaskus)

Ibnenjoying Hawqal its stillcentury-old praised therank quality as a local and trading the impressive centre, much ornaments of its ancient of the buildings.architecture Under was thepreserved. Zengid andIn the Ayyubid 9th and dynasties 10th centuries (12th/13th Al-Yakubi centuries) and Baalbek saw itself transformed to a strategic stronghold against the cru

- (d.sader 1221), threat. who The a not city’s only super-regional established a significance Hanbali school remains near theperceptible capital Da through the attendance of religious scholars, like Sheikh Abdallah al-Yunini The quarters in Baalbek’s current old city date back to the 18th and 19th - centuries.mascus but Only also few chose buildings, Baalbek for as thea super-regional most mosques site and of memorial action. build ings, have survived earlier periods marked by earthquakes and economic - Bustan Nassif 2009 difficulties from the 16th to mid-18th centuries. (H. Lehmann)

Stonepaste vessel (DAI, I. Wagner) 4 5 Bustan Nassif – a medieval dwelling Conservation work in Bustan Nassif quarter It was only in the 1970’s, during exca The Roman sanctuaries were trans vations conducted by the Lebanese formed into a fortress probably as early Directorate General of Antiquities that- as the 9th and 10th centuries AD. With- the medieval quarters at Bustan Nassif the crusader wars in the 11th and 12th were again brought to light. Although its architectural remains are preserved only take the aspect of the stronghold as it as foundations, they all the same impres presentscenturies, itself they today. were modifiedImmediately again facing to its southern gates one passes through medieval Baalbek. - a former neighbourhood referred to as Bustansively reflect Nassif the is located wealth inand the status visitors’ of Bustan Nassif. The sector was formerly entrance area. The premises are characterised by private houses, a local dedicated to the explanation of Baalbek’s mosque, a bath house, and a khan/cara medieval history and that of the quarter vanserai built in the Middle Ages on top itself. of older structures from classical antiq - The conservation of the area and the - presentation to the public was carried out jointly by the Lebanese Directorate 563/1168.uity. Under Nur ed-Din Zengi, the quar- General of Antiquities and the German Underters were the fortified Early Ottoman with a newrule, citythe wallsector In Archaeological Institute with generous declined in the 15th century and gradu funding from the German Federal Foreign ally fell into oblivion until it ended up as gardening plots in the 18th and 19th centuries (Arabic Bustan). Office. -

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