Development Cooperation Handbook/Stories/Heritage and Community

MDG8: Develop a Global Partnership

⇒ Playlist on Youtube
⇒ Lebanon 2 - Italian civilian-military cooperation
⇒ New Goals 1 - Recognize and protect our diverse identities and our common heritage

Heritage and Community
Project implemented by Government of Lebanon
Baalbek, Lebanon, October 2010
Project co-financed by the Italian Government

Heritage and Community - playlist

Baalbek (بعلبك) is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, east of the Litani River. It is famous for its monumental temples of the pagan age, when the city was named Heliopolis (λιούπολις), and was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Roman Empire.

Baalbek was severely hit during the 2006 Israel incursion into Lebanon. On August 4, 2006, Israeli helicopter-borne soldiers, supported by bomb attacks from their aircrafts, entered the Hikmeh Hospital in Baalbek. Their purpose was to capture senior members of the Hezbollah group that were considered responsible for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers that were thought to be hidden in the building. Vibrations caused by bombs during this conflict were reported to having damaged the archeological heritage of Baalbek. UNESCO had offered to help coordinate the restoration efforts in the monuments. And the Italian Government had funded a cooperation project that helped preserve the heritage and revive the infrastructure utilised for managing water resources.

Italian experts have been supporting Lebanese authorities in better conservation and management of archaeological sites, setting up information points, organising exhibitions and setting up museums.