Insist on the restoration of”seductive flour”… Dozens of interconnected caves and grottoes
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I went to the” flour mill “inside one of the neighborhoods of the popular city of Baalbek, crowded with residential buildings, to meet the best of the Baalbek youth under the name of the” Lebanese Association for coexistence and Development ” (Dr. Hussein Fida Hassan and Mohammed Saadallah Solh) to write an article about this neglected ancient archaeological site located in the neighborhood where I grew up, and neglect turned it into a leak of brackish water and animal cages; the official authorities had moved years ago and just emptied the caves of animals and horses.
And once I got to the place that I know and all the baalbekians know, it was like the first time I visited it. In fact, I was not enthusiastic at first to visit this place because of my prior knowledge of what it contains, and for fear of the unpleasant odors that have been emanating from it for decades due to the sewage canals and waste that spread in it (where the people deliberately diverted the brackish water of each house to the cave, basements and inside the grotto to turn this archaeological quarry into a sanitary pit for many years emitting unpleasant odors).
Before arriving at the site, a beehive of young men and women volunteers working under the rays of the July sun on the implementation of drawings and colors on the walls of the shop, and cleaning the sidewalks that reach the site, add joy and enjoyment of looking to improve the aesthetic of the shop, including Hind and Rima Abu Esper (two painters from Baalbek and residing in Beirut), and as soon as my eyes fell on “the lure of flour”, I was fascinated by what I saw as if it was the first time I visited it, and I began to know well the insistence of these young baalbekians, from whom I felt a flood of love for their city and its people, and giving them all the time to restore this discovered archaeological site.
One of the members of the association, Hussein Hassan, explained to us some details of this place, which was used as a Roman quarry and was reused at the end of the Roman period as cave burials carved into a rock; its name was associated with “flour” due to its fragile limestone nature; the name was borrowed from the name of the white limestone rocks that make up the known caves, as when they disintegrate, they resemble wheat flour, i.e. “flour”.
Inside this place, which we were able to enter for the first time after the restoration process (where “An-Nahar” conducted an investigation earlier in the year ٢٠١٠ about the site, and the brackish water had prevented our entry and we were able with great difficulty to stay a few minutes inside to take pictures due to the smells that spread throughout it). I looked with amazement, amid the wonderful illumination of the place, at more geometric shapes carved in the rock, distributed rooms, tombs inside the rocks, geometric ornaments in a way that was adopted thousands of years ago.
There are rectangular, square, or circular caves, as we have seen a number of geometric drawings in the doors, such as semicircular, rectangular, or a burial dating back to the Roman period, which is “arcsolia”, i.e. burial under arches carved in the rock within carved rock niches or coffins. The “flour grotto” consists of dozens of caves and caves interspersed among them with basements carved into the rock within tunnels and doors that are not devoid of the Old approved geometric pattern.
The project of restoration and rehabilitation of the archaeological flour mill implemented by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) in cooperation with the municipality of Baalbek and the Lebanese Association for coexistence and Development, funded by the Italian agency for development and cooperation, and in full coordination with the Directorate General of Antiquities, has won the approval of the people of the city, so they have a new archaeological landmark no less important than the archaeological Castle of Baalbek, and it will be available to visitors in ١٤ from this month, the date of the opening of this historical landmark for the first time organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) after a careful restoration has been carried out, along with new discoveries made by the followers of the process of exploring this archaeological site By the Lebanese Association for coexistence and development, who initiated the realization of this Baalbek dream and turned it into reality through international organizations, and the diligent follow-up from the mayor of Baalbek Fouad blog, who was keen on the success of the tasks of these young people and an absolute supporter of them.
The curators of the project deserve all appreciation as they turned the flour mill, which was a place of sanitation, into an important archaeological place through the process of cleaning and restoring this site, which was suffering from significant damage, and it was an obstacle for the Directorate of antiquities to study this area, and therefore donors cannot finance because there is no study about the mill (including a German expedition that visited the site in the year ٢٠١٠ and tried to extract a topographic drawing of the site, but the sewage in it hindered the work of the team, which was unable to enter).
From here, the biggest challenge was, as Hassan emphasizes, and he says: “we succeeded in removing the sewage and we worked on extracting ٢٥٠ a truck loaded with various wastes, we also worked on rehabilitating the houses surrounding the site to improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood, and the street leading to it was flooded, waiting for the opening day next Sunday, at six o’clock in the evening, which will be sponsored by the minister of Culture Dr. Mohammed Daoud, and a short film will be shown highlighting the details of the completion of the project.
As for the role of the association, Hassan points out that it is a group of activists from the city of Baalbek,” after their success in achieving the Virgin Square and others, we found that out of responsibility and loyalty to our city, it was necessary to lift the damage to this archaeological site and the surrounding neighborhood amid the absence of initiatives to rehabilitate it for decades, most of the residents of the locality do not know its archaeological importance and are ignorant of its history, they consider it a cave consisting of several branches that was used for housing and leads to the outskirts of the city.
He confirmed that the work came under the slogan (seductive flour… The association considered that one of the first needs of people is development, as the project contributes to the development of the locality, and it was distinguished that it was subject to a tender managed by engineers from the city of Baalbek, where the project reconnected the houses surrounding the Mughar by extending a new sewage network and connecting it to the public network, removing encroachments and waste from the archaeological site, treating it from deposits, installing night lighting, fading and beautifying the surrounding houses.
As for the cost of the project, Hassan confirmed that it amounted to 180 thousand US dollars, and the association was able, apart from the amount allocated for the project, to collect a sum of money and beautify the walls surrounding the teacher with painting on them by young volunteers for this work.
And about the difficulties that faced them He stressed that great difficulties faced them at the beginning of their work, as the people of the locality lost confidence in any improvement work due to the neglect of this place decades ago due to the war that the state was absent from this place, and the random construction witnessed amid the absence of a comprehensive development plan by officials, but today they have become our second hand in the success of this work because they saw a positive reflection for them, how a place that was a source of unpleasant odors became an outlet for them and the beauty of the locality.
He thanked all those who contributed to the success of the project, especially the dedication of the contractors, engineers Omar Solh and Rabie al-Rifai, for carrying out the work accurately.
In turn, Mohamed Solh confirmed on behalf of the association that the latter is determined to make more discoveries at the endless site in the next stage, and also determined to go out to the streets of the locality and restore it from the outside as a cosmetic operation to receive visitors for the first time in a beautiful suit and reflect the beautiful image of this archaeological place, and prove it on the tourist and cultural map. He thanked “the Directorate of antiquities, which was responsive to us, especially in the person of the director of antiquities in the Bekaa, Laure Salloum, and her support for the work”.
