Afqa

My week will not be complete if I didn't go to a place with one the following: River/ lots of green/ lots of stars/ or a new place I could take tons of pictures and then waste so much time watching them over and over again. So this week I finally got to go to this place I had in mind for a long time now, to the source of Nahr Ibrahim.

Afqa is the sacred source of the Adonis River (modern Nahr Ibrahim), where the waters emerge from a huge grotto in a cliff 200 meters high. It is here that the myth of Venus and Adonis was born. The story goes that while out hunting, Adonis was killed by a wild boar. Venus (the Phoenician goddess Astarte), who was his lover, tried to save him but she was too late. And so it is the blood of Adonis that each spring turns the torrential river to red (source)


The whole way from Hrajel to Lissa was well... Lebanese, potholes and all

Once we reached, we first went to the upper part where water was flowing from a cave. There was nothing much to see here, since it's the end of summer, meaning the driest season and a not-so-impressive waterfall.


The upper part, waterfall coming from the cave

Then after "climbing" up and showering with a few of these on the way...


Oops!

...we were in the cave. I love the blue, also the sound of the water, the cold and I wish we could go deeper but it was a dead end.


In the cave, I wonder how much the water rises in the winter

What I really wanted to see though was the arches from the opposite side. I really should do my homework next time because I was puzzled for a while lol... On the other side of the road there were stairs leading to a restaurant and from there even more stairs going down, so we asked the lady who owns the restaurant if we could go down.


View from the cave
And there it was!

Waterfall, natural pool, arches & the river forming a spectacular view

Waterfalls and the natural pool

The water was crystal clear and a very beautiful dark blue in the deep. I could spend hours in this spot! It's one of the many places in Lebanon really worth seeing.

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