Beirut's past comes to life
Re-opening of the National Museum.
After twenty years closed to the world, the National Museum of Beirut is dusting off its treasures and emerging from the rubbleand scars of the recent civil war to re-open its doors to the public. And in the city centre itself, archaeologists are racing against time to uncover the past before the future is built on top of it.
Faced with the massive task of re-building their country, the Lebanese cannot forget their heritage. Lebanon's Director General of Antiquities, Dr Camille Asmar, explains, 'It is not just ours. What we have is an international heritage. In Lebanon the whole history of civilisation is in one piece of land.'
When the civil war broke out in 1975, the museum was closed and the past was locked away for the future. Most items were crated up and either moved down to the basement or removed into the vaults of Beirut's Central Bank. The larger pieces, including statues and coffins, were left where they were but encased in concrete.
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