In 2008 I made a couple of trips to Syria and Lebanon – one trip started with the train from Istanbul across Turkey to Syria and Aleppo (pictures of the latter are hard to look at, given the destruction of this wonderful city since). On that occasion I crossed into Lebanon and briefly explored the south of the country. I’ll never forget Beaufort Crusader castle (important position for occupying IDF), and the Al Khiam jail – former South Lebanese Army detention centre, turned Hezbollah museum, then bombed out by the Israelis in ’06 (Hezbollah turned it into another ‘museum’ full of captured IDF vehicles and Katyusha rockets…)

My wife and I made the second trip during our time in Palestine, working in Nablus.

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