The Umayyads, the first hereditary dynasty
of Islam, ruled from Damascus in the first century after the
Prophet Mohammed, from 660 to 750 A.D. They are credited with
the great Arab conquests that created an Islamic empire stretching
from the Indus Valley to southern France.
Skilled in administration and planning, their empire prospered
for 100 years. Defeat struck them when the Abbasids - their
rivals and their successors - took advantage of the Umayyad's
increasing decadence.
Some chronicles and literary documents inform us that it
was Walid I, son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who built
the city of Aanjar between 705 and 715 A.D.
The construction of the city contributed to the Umayyad goal
of integrating the Arab tribes living on the fringes of the
desert into their “urban civilization” and empire. Walid's
son Ibrahim lost Aanjar when he was defeated by his cousin
Marwan II in a battle two kilometers from the city. Marwan
II continued the process of building the city. However, after
the Umayyads' defeat by the Abbasids around 750 A.D., the
unfinished city was deserted and fell into disrepair.
Excavating Aanjar
Just after Lebanon gained independence in 1943, the country's
General Directorate of Antiquities began to investigate a
strip of land in the Békaa Valley sandwiched between the Lebanon
and Anti-Lebanon mountains, some 58 kilometers east of Beirut.
This was Aanjar, then a stretch of bland bareness with parched
shrubbery and stagnant swamps that covered the vast area of
these archaeological remains.
The site at first seemed painfully modest, especially when
compared with the rest of Lebanon's archaeological wonders.
What attracted the antiquities experts to Aanjar was not so
much the ruins themselves, as the information they held. Beneath
the impersonal grayness of Aanjar, the experts suggested,
lay the vestiges of the 8th century Umayyad dynasty that ruled
from Damascus and held sway over an empire. That idea was
particularly interesting because Lebanon - that unique crossroads
of the ages - boasted ample archaeological evidence of almost
all stages of Arab history with the exception of the Umayyad
era.
Early in the excavation engineers drained the swamp. Stands
of evergreen cypress and eucalyptus trees were planted and
still flourish today, giving these stately ruins a park-like
setting.
To date, almost the entire site has been excavated, and some
monuments have been restored. Among the chief structures are
the Great Palace and the Mosque in the southeast quarter,
the residential area in the southwest quarter, the Little
Palace in the northwest quarter, and a third Palace and public
bath in the northeast quarter.
The Site Today
Aanjar is open daily. Close to the ruins of Aanjar are a
number of restaurants that offer fresh trout and a full array
of Lebanese and Armenian dishes. Some of the restaurants are
literally built over the trout ponds. Aanjar has no hotels,
but lodging can found in Chtaura, 15 kilometers away. |
