Apparently last Friday was the International Day for Not Using a Mobile Phone. So reports Nada Akl of the Lebanese website, iloubnan. The article is reproduced on the Full Story page, and it raises the question whether you could survive without a mobile phone these days. Even the thought may give you panic attacks !


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In the 19th Century American monthly periodical, Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science & Art, a travel article appeared featuring Ehden. In Volume VIII of a bound edition of articles from August 1856, it recounts the unnamed traveller's encounter with the area of Ehden and the Cedars. It seems that Ehden even in those days was on traveler's internery.

The article appears on the Full story page.


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Part II of the narrative from Missionary Herald Report of its Overseas Missionaries for 1828 concerning Reverend Issac Bird 's visit to Ehden continues on the Full Story page.


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The tale of protestant missionary Reverend Issac Bird visit to Ehden in the early part of the 19th Century is an intriguing story, as he was treated as a heretic. The visit and his flight from Ehden is recorded in the Missionary Herald Report of its Overseas Missionaries for 1828.

The Reverend was born in 1793 in England and with his wife sailed to Syria in 1822. He resided in Beirut for the greater part of ten years, travelling to Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon. One source* says he intoduced the potato to Ehden in 1827.

To read about his visit go to the Full Story page.


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Any student of Ehden - Zgharta's history will come across four drawings which have become iconic images of the past.

The drawings were made by an Englishman, William Henry Bartlett, who was born in London, 1809, being one the leading illustrators of topography in the 19th Century. His drawings were engraved and used in many illustrated trave books.He died of fever on board of a French ship off the coast of Malta returning from his last trip to the Near East, in 1854.

In the 1830's he visited Lebanon where he made four drawings of Ehden (spelt Eden) and Zgharta (spelt Zgarti).The engraving of the drawings, the Village of Zgarti, the of Village of Eden, Church & Sheik's house in Eden and The Convent(sic) of St. Antonio near Eden, appear in the illustrated guide. Syria, The Holy Land, Asia Minor, etc published in 1836.

In the preface of another book, The Nile Boat (1849), Bartlett says that his primary concern was to render "lively impressions of actual sights". His method was to make sepia wash drawings of the subject scene in the exact size to be engraved. A common theme of his drawings was to include a ruin or element of the past and scenes of churches, abbeys, cathedrals and castles. One writer said of him , describing his talent that, "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed".

Another writer says of his drawings that, "The detail in these images is intricate, every leaf on a tree is depicted as are the features on the faces of the people. The populace are shown going about their normal business expressing their culture, also their traditional dress is evident ....(his) work are interesting not only on a theological level but also aesthetically..."

Most of the prints of his work are steel engravings, being the dominant illustrative process between around 1825 and 1845.

The engravings and the accompanying narrative can be seen on the Full Story page.
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