On Saturday, 7th October 2006, is the Feast day of Saints Sarkis and Bakhous.

The Saints are believed to have died in the early 4th Century and it is said that by the 7th Century they were being venerated in North Lebanon. The Saints early veneration in Ehden is evidence by there being a river named after Saint Sarkis and at whose source (Nebaa Mar Sarkis) a church named after the Saints was built in the 8th Century. The Monastery bearing the Saints names is located on the same site and was itself founded in 1198. In Zgharta, the Church and Monastery of Saints Sarkis and Bakhous was built in 1854, located on the banks of the River Rachine.

The Saints continuing veneration through the centuries continue to this day in Zgharta Zawie and the special Masses held on their Feast day are especially well attended.

We send our greetings to all those named after the Saints on their Feast Day.

The Ministry of Tourism has published an "Alternative Lodging Directory" for Lebanon. The idea behind the Directory is to encourage tourism away from Beirut and other tourist hot spots.

The Directory provides listings of the smaller type hotel, "bed & breakfast" establishments, monasteries, eco-lodges and other accommodation, hence its name. It consists of fifty-seven pages divided into regions of which North Lebanon consists of thirteen pages (page numbers 36 to 49) but unfortunately there are no entries for Zgharta Zawie.

The Directory is online in Arabic, English and French versions (PDF format, 10,395KB) at www.destinationlebanon.com

The website discoverlebanon.com has put online a 360° degree photograph of the Al Midan, Ehden. There are three photographs of Ehden on their site. As we reported earlier we were invited to write the narative introduction for Ehden for the site. To view the photographs click here.

The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism have expanded their series of tourist guides for Lebanon under the Promenade banner.

In addition to the four existing Regional Promenade brochures, which includes Zgharta Zawie in the North Lebanon brochure, they have produced six Nature Reserve Promenade brochures, including one for the Horsh Ehden Reserve and thirteen Archaeological Promenade brochures.The text for the brochures are in Arabic and English.

To read more about the brochures, click on the Full Story tab
Full Story

We were very proud to be asked by William Matar, the owner of http://www.discoverlebanon.com , to write the introduction on his website for the section relating to Ehden. The idea of the website is to feature 360-degree, panoramic style, mini movies of the hundreds of places of interest in Lebanon. The website is daily adding sections and we were pleased that we were able to help in ensuring that Ehden was one of the first sections to be completed. At present there are two panoramic mini movies of Ehden, with more to follow. It’s as if you are standing in Ehden when you view them. We hope that surfers on the web looking for places to visit will find the views of Ehden irresistible and will flock to Ehden. It is important that Ehden appears on as many tourist sites as possible.

To read more about the site and the introduction, click on the Full Story tab.

Full Story

During the course of this summer the Rotary Club of Zgharta in collaboration with the Ehden Country Club and the Zgharta Ehden Municipal Council organised a conference on the subject of the development of tourism in Ehden at the Ehden Country Club.

Many of the ideas put forward at the Conference appear to be extremely sensible and could be the blueprint for developing Ehden’s future tourism. Clearly some need the support of Central or Regional Government and also financial funding. Some ideas already appear to have been implemented or in the process of being implemented by the Zgharta Ehden Municipal Council.

Ideas of providing winter warmth to tourists in restaurants and cafés are a must we believe, especially if the Al Midan is to have a yearlong season. It is one thing to have brilliant winter sunshine and another to have cold feet while eating. Another suggestion, which was also picked up in the magazine ”Lebanese Opportunities” mentioned in yesterday's article, is the need of banking facilities in Ehden. This is especially so when restaurants and cafés require cash to pay bills. This leads into another point made at the Conference about credit/charge cards, which the owners themselves can only decide. It must be recognise that for many overseas visitors, plastic has replace paper as the means to pay.

To read about what was said and recommended at the Conference, click on the Full Story tab.
Full Story

In recent days Ehden has been featured in Lebanese national newspapers. The articles appeared in the Al Anwar, yesterday and the Al Balad today.

The article in today's, Al Balad, talked about the Horsh Ehden and the new Ehden offices of the Reserve. It mentioned that there has been an increase this summer in the numbers of visitors to the Reserve, averaging now 1000 visitors per month. Also that there had been last month a specially arranged tour of the Reserve for some 40 overseas visitors, who had Ehden family ties, coming from as far as Australia ,Brazil, France, USA and Venezuela. Click on the PDF link to read about the article (Arabic).

The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism released figures showing that for the first eight months of this year there were 778,793 tourists, against 943,846 at the same time last year, a projected decline of 15.9% for the year.

For the month of August, Lebanon had 182,912 tourists, against 212,113 last years, a decrease of 13.8%. The downturn was explained by the reduced numbers of Arabic tourists which numbered 102 855, some 21% less than last August. Those tourists coming from Europe were down by only 4.7%.

A further breakdown of the August figures showed that tourists from Arab countries were the majority and that the main Arabic countries were: Saudi Arabia, 36, 571; Jordan, 24 569 and Kuwait, 17, 963. European tourists came second with 35,178 visitors, with those from France representing 28% of European tourists (9,664), followed by Germany (6,585) and Great Britain (3, 667). Asian tourists numbered numbered 22,143.

Of note there were 249,844 Lebanese visitors to Lebanon in August.

Read tomorrow the first in a series of articles concerning Ehden's tourist industry.

We were eventually able to catch up with the busy Stephany Douaihy one evening to talk about the recent Miss Lebanon Emigrant contest and her time in Lebanon this year.

Although she was not crowned she was happy being one of the last five finalists and also gaining the prize for Best National Costume, which she brought from Venezuela. She said that the contest was a brilliant opportunity to meet fourteen other girls from the Lebanese Diaspora. All were different but yet all shared the same heritage and it was a learning experience to hear about each other’s lives, she says. All the girls, she stressed, did get on well with each other! and firm friends have been made. For some it was the first time that they had visited Lebanon.

To read the complete article click on the Full Story tab.The opposite photograph is of Stephany in her winning National Costume dress
Full Story

History will be repeating itself again in Ehden this year as the restaurants, cafes and bars of Ehden will close once again due to the impact of the celebrations on the eve before the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is held on 6th August. The closedown is because of the fear of uncontrolled revellers causing harm and damage to people and property.

Friday is this year's eve of the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is traditionally celebrated by lighted candles and firework displays. Increasingly over the years fireworks have become a problem with them being thrown around without care of person or property. Many restaurant, cafe and bar owners are upset that they are being forced to close their businesses because of a minority who have no respect for others. One owner said that it was "crazy that the tourist industry of Ehden has to close in the middle of the summer season, which was not that great anyway, as the numbers of visitors are lower than previous years". Another said that as next year's, 2006, feast's eve will fall on a Saturday , " are we expected to close on the best day of the week!"

NEWS UPDATE: The opposite photograph was taken at 2 o'clock this afternoon showing the Al Midan empty of visitors.The sound of fireworks were heard at the time.

We are happy to report the opening of a new restaurant in Ehden called "Le Banquet".

It is owned by Thérèse Dahdah Douaihy, who has always lived in Zgharta, and who is a passionate believer in traditional food.

The restaurant is pleasantly situated on the road to Nebeh Mar Sarkis and is open during the day. Reservations can be made by phone on 00 961 3 014 227.

To read more about Thérése, her grandmother’s tanjara and Le Banquet click on the Full Story tab.

See Arabic PDF version in Thérèse's own words of her grandmother and the recipes she will cook.

Full Story

Yet another reason to visit Ehden. Zghartawien and reigning Miss Lebanon Immigrant Venezuela 2005, Stephany Zakhia Douaihy, is coming to Lebanon, at the end of the month. She says that she will be definitely coming to Ehden as she did last year and on another occasion. It seems Stephany will be "shared" between her lovely uncles and aunts here in Ehden and Zgharta - Elham Douaihy, Alberto Zakhia, and Yvonne Zakhia.

Stephany is a contestant in the Miss Lebanon Immigrant 2005 contest, being held on 14th August. Contestants are of Lebanese ancestry who have been crowned Miss Lebanon Immigrant of the country they now reside in. The contest was previously called Miss Lebanon of the World.

The photograph is of Stephany as Miss Lebanon Immigrant Venezuela 2005.

To read more about Stephany click on the Full Story tab.
Full Story

And another reason to come to Ehden now, is to see Miss Lebanon Australia 2005 contestant Hasna Abi Tannous. Hasna is now holidaying in Ehden. She was the first runner up out of fifteen contestants at the contest in Australia, which took place in June.

Hasna who is 18, lives in Sydney, Australia, but whose family originates from Zgharta . Her parents are Simon Abi Tannous and Gizelle Abi Tannous and grandparents are Tannous Bou Tannous, Lamia Bou Tannous,Albert El Cheikha Douaihy and Alice Frangieh. She has a brother, Dany, and sister,Gihane.

She is studying business management and works for design company IDRAFT.Her motto for the contest was " Do not dwell on the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment".

The photograph shows Hasna at the Drop In, Al Midan.

Click here to see a selection of photographs of Hasna

The management of Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve has announced that they wish to recruit more volunteers to help run the Reserve.

Those wishing to volunteer need to complete an application form which can either be downloaded from this PDF link or collected from the offices of the Zgharta Ehden Municipality offices in Ehden. For further information contact Mr. Sarkis Khawaja at +961 (0) 3 389973 or email him at saco@cyberia.net.lb or phone the Zgharta Ehden Municipal Council on 06 560 189.

To read more about the Reserve, who are its officers and the need for volunteers, click on the Full Story tab. The opposite map shows the area of Horsh Ehden.
Article updated 6th July 2005.
Full Story

Following the tragic events in February, when it seemed the whole of Lebanon was in a state of paralysis for many months, and with the General Election now being over, many businesses in Ehden are hoping for a good summer.

Expectations were high at the beginning of the year as Ehden hoped to benefit from the projected increase in tourism to Lebanon, which hit record highs in 2004.

Visitors to Ehden are still largely “domestic”, being either those who live away, Beirut or Jounieh, and those who live overseas but who visit “home “ for the summer. Rodrigue Dahdah of the Drop In restaurant in Ehden says that business is slow during the week but visitors are appearing more and more as the weeks pass. Indeed he said he had just collected his sister, Mrs Susan Doueihi, from Sydney, Australia, the other day from the airport.

One thing, which businesses are waiting to hear, is whether there will be an Ehden Summer Festival this year, following the successful one last year. Our enquiries todate suggest that a decision has yet to be made.

The photograph is of the Al Midan, Ehden, taken last summer.

We are very privilege in having been given permission by Europtima to put online today their recently published tourist map of Ehden. The map shows places of interest in Ehden, how to get to them with high quality photographs of many places.

The map has been designed so that the Ehden visitor can use it all year round. It is printed on shiny card in A3 format on two sides and such is its design it will be a wonderful souvenir for years to come. The map also contains useful information and also where hotels and activities can be reserved and booked.

The map was designed by Europtima architect Badoui Merheb, assisted by architect Toni Aboudib, in association with Ehden ecotourism operator NorEx. Europtima are the international and real estate partners who are a member of the Optimum Group who operates throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.The company is leading the Ehden 3000 project. The web site of Europtima is www.europtima.com

NorEx are the local ecotourism operator where reservations for hotels and activities can be booked throughout the year.Their email address is norex@ehden.com.

To download the map in PDF format click here. Note the PDF size is 837 KB and may take time to download.