Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 15:23:24 +0200
From: Elie Wardini <e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no>
To: beirut-arch@hiof.no
Subject: Crusader Castle found in Beirut

World Briefs - Jun 8, 1995 01:30EDT
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(c) Copyright the News & Observer Publishing Co.
Archaeologists find proof of lost Crusader castle

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Under the ruins of a landmark cinema ravaged by the civil
war, archaeologists have unearthed remnants of a castle built in Beirut by
12th century Crusaders.

While Lebanon -- especially Beirut -- is rich in archaeological finds from
the Canaanite, Phoenician and Roman eras, the discovery of a Crusader
building by a team of American University of Beirut archaeologists was a
first for the Lebanese capital's downtown.

The discovery last week was only possible after much of the downtown had
been razed to make way for reconstruction of the city center from the
devastation of the 1975-90 war.

Hints of the castle's existence had circulated for years. Leila Badr, head
of the archaeological team, said a French historian had written about a
Crusader castle built near the seafront in Beirut to protect the Lebanese
coastline.

Marble pillars with Roman etchings were first found by the team under 30
feet of soil -- the first solid proof of the castle's existence, she said.

"The Crusaders have used old Roman pillars in the building of their castles.
Since we discovered the pillars, we realized the castle definitely existed,"
Ms. Badr told An-Nahar newspaper.

The main wall of the castle was later unearthed from under the Rivoli
cinema, which was dynamited and bulldozed last summer.

The Crusades were a series of wars undertaken by European Christians between
the 11th and 14th centuries to reconquer the Holy Land from its Muslim
rulers. They took Beirut in 1110 and built castles on Lebanon's mountains
and the coastline to defend against attacks.

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