Hiking at DHOUR EL CHOUEIR on Sun, Oct 09, 2022 with DALE CORAZON – LEBANON EXPLORERS

Dhour El Choueir (summit of a mountain) is a typical Lebanese town with old caves, mills, ancient bridges, water springs, and an old souk with stone-paved passages, and beautiful houses with old traditional arches. It lies slightly north of the main Beirut – Damascus highway. It overlooks the city of Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea.

HIKE LOCATION                  :   Dhour el Choueir – Khenchara /Maten/ Mount Lebanon         

=============                    1250 meters above sea level, 30 km from Beirut.

                                                 Khenchara village (St. John Monastery)

WHEN                                   :  Sunday, October 09, 2022

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ENCOUNTER PLACE             :  Mar Maroun Church Parking, Dora @ 7:30 AM

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Driving directions to Mar Maroun      https://dalecorazon.com/contact/

Or Martyrs Square at Al-Nahar Bldg., Beirut Downtown @ 7:15 AM

FEES:                            

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380,000 LL/person or 10 $ including transport, professional guides, 5 minutes of warming up, stretching, and pictures.

Children 18 years old and younger will have a discount of 15%. (330,000 LL/person)

Optional transportation by your own vehicle 250,000 LL/person

Make your group of 5 persons (& more) and get a 10% discount (340,000 LL per person).

DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT:

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It is one of Mount Lebanon’s favored summer resorts. Dhour El-Choueir is important for its August yearly carnival, honoring Lebanon’s emigrants.

The Greek Catholic monk Abd Allah Zakhir set up an Arabic language printing press using movable type at the monastery of Saint John at Choueir, the first homemade press in Lebanon. He personally cut the type molds and did the founding of the elegant typeface. He created the first true Arabic script type in the Middle East. The first book off the Zakhir press was printed in 1734; this press continued to be used until 1899.

It is the birthplace of Anton Saadeh who founded the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and of Tanios Bou-Nader Khneisser, the father of the Sword & Shield Folkloric Dance.

It will be our destination for this journey. Will start from the main square of Dhour Choueir and end at St. John Monastery Khenchara.

HIKING LEVEL. 1 to 3 for easy, 4 to 6 for intermediate, 7 to 9 for strenuous

Level 4: (10 km) is a moderate hike. Starting from the village where you can have a stroll in the narrow passageways and contemplate the old houses and ancient arches, you will pass by three water springs like Ain Al-Khassis. From there, you will continue further along a picturesque trail and cross Mgharit el Za3im Cave of Antoun Saadeh, a water source of Ain el Hanout and Hirch Khinchara. Then we will head to St. John Monastery in Khenchara to meet the monks.