LEBANON: National Museum 🏛️ in BEIRUT - one of world's best museums, what to see!

Hello, this is Vic. Welcome to my channel and thank you for viewing my videos. Today I'm in the beautiful country of Lebanon here in the Middle East and I'm visiting the fascinating capital of Lebanon, the city of Beirut. In this particular documentary we're going to visit one of the most fascinating museums of the Mediterranean region. This is the National Museum of Beirut. Some of exhibits here date as far back as the 17th century before Christ. So let's go for a walk. We have so much to see and so much to learn. Let's do it. And here is a quick view of the first floor of the fascinating National Museum of Beirut. It will cost you four dollars U.S. to enter this incredible museum that covers findings from pre-Phoenician times. Some of the findings go back to 17,000 before Christ. The Phoenician era through the Hellenistic era, Roman, Byzantine and finally through the Muslim and Ottoman eras as well. It has two floors and a basement and it is full of incredible exhibits. So spend at least a couple of hours going through this beautiful and wonderful place. Okay let's start our tour by looking at a magnificent second century after Christ Greek sarcophagus from Tyre here in Lebanon or Sur as it is known in Arabic. It is an absolutely magnificent sarcophagus as you can see here made out of beautiful white marble depicting Achilles right here wearing his armor and surrounded by Ulysses and Agamemnon and other Greek heroes as you can see here. What an absolutely magnificent piece of art. Now let's stay with this sarcophagus for just a few more seconds and view one of the other sides and here we see some feminine figures very well preserved. Look at the detail on their dresses and their faces and once again what a magnificent piece of art here at the National Museum. By far one of the most significant exhibits here at the National Museum are the statues of children. You can see one statue right here and another statue right there. These statues are Phoenician from the fifth century before Christ and they were created by the king of Sidon here in Lebanon. He dedicated these statues to god Eshum, the god of healing, thanking the god for healing his child. Eshum was known in Greek as Asclepios and thousands of people come here in order to view these statues made a couple of hundred years before Alexander the Great established the Hellenistic era here in Lebanon. Let's spend a few more moments on another sarcophagus from Tyre or Sur here in Lebanon. This one is from the second century after Christ as well and this one depicts Achilles right here in the corner and the person kissing his hand is Priam, the Trojan king. He is actually thanking Achilles for returning to him the body of his son Hector. Here's Hector attached to a chariot there's a procession taking place here for the return of the body by Achilles to his father Priam. This is a scene from the Iliad Homer's epic. Let's remember that Achilles killed Hector in a battle. Here he is seen returning the body to the father. Look how beautiful this whole sarcophagus is, how intact it is as well. Magnificent. And here's a Phoenician colossus or statue quite possibly before 1000 BC. Now if it looks very Egyptian to you you're absolutely correct because the Phoenicians, by the way this statue is from Byblos, the Phoenicians established Byblos around 6000 BC and they created a culture that was a mix between Egypt and Mesopotamia. I wouldn't be surprised if this statue was from the third millennium BC or even before. It is made out of limestone. What a priceless statue indeed from Byblos here in Lebanon. Now let's leave the sarcophagi from the Hellenistic era behind us and let's look at this sarcophagus from ancient Byblos. This is a sarcophagus from Phoenician era from around 1000 BC. This sarcophagus was created for a Phoenician king and it contains an inscription here. You can see the letters, the Phoenician characters right there. This is actually a curse upon the person that would open this coffin. You can see the figures here on the side of the sarcophagus. Very, very similar to Egyptian figures just like the colossus that we just saw. And here's a very, very interesting display for those of you that have studied history extensively. You'll find this display absolutely amazing. These items are from the Bronze Age which spans the era between 3200 BC and 1200 BC. And these items are from Byblos, the Phoenician city here in Lebanon, Sidon and other Phoenician cities established in the area. But there's something absolutely remarkable about this. If we go a little closer, look at the head of the bull on the left, the two items on the right and the bull here. These are very, very similar to items found in Crete in Greece during the Minoan civilization. As a matter of fact, if there was no sign here, I would have said, my god, what are these items doing here? They belong to a museum in Greece. So there was a lot of contact during the Bronze Age between the Phoenicians and the Minoans in Crete. The Minoans, of course, had established themselves. They had built a palace in Knossos. Absolutely remarkable exhibit, isn't it? And here's an absolutely remarkable exhibit of golden items found in tombs in Byblos here in Lebanon. These are golden items recovered from the tombs. The tombs were created between 2000 and 1500 before Christ. On the shelf there, on the top shelf, you can see bracelets, golden bracelets and rings with precious stones. And on the upper level, you can see more golden items that were included with the body that was buried. On the second floor of the museum, we also find an exhibit with items found in the tomb of a wealthy lady that died in the 5th century before Christ here in Sidon in Lebanon. And the most important of the findings is this. This is her crown, which is gold and turquoise stones at the front. There are many items here displayed from this tomb, but this is one of the most absolutely remarkable items. After 333 before Christ, when Alexander the Great's armies marched through Lebanon, Byblos lost its importance and now Beirut was becoming the most important Hellenistic center. This beautiful marble statue that you see here, which is about 60 centimeters in height, is a Greek statue from the 1st century before Christ, from Beirut, made out of beautiful white marble. Very, very typical Greek in composure. And here you see a couple of absolutely remarkable face masks from Byblos from around 2000 before Christ. These masks were used to cover the faces of the deceased before burial. Let me also take this opportunity to show you the second floor of the beautiful building of the National Museum of Beirut here in Lebanon. You can see how beautifully the items are displayed with a lot of care. Now every item is described in Arabic, French, and English. And here from this balcony here we can look down onto the first floor. In one of the exhibits you will also find an extensive collection of glass items from the Roman era, from 64 before Christ up to 395 after Christ. Okay, I'm now back on the first floor and let's view our final exhibit. This is the absolutely beautiful Greek statue of Hygieia, or Aegeia as it is called in Greek. This is the statue of the goddess of health. It is a 2nd century after Christ statue, made out of beautiful white marble. One of the most beautiful Greek statues I have seen outside of Greece. And if you see any brochures regarding Byblos here in Lebanon without a doubt, you're going to see this statue as well because that's where it was discovered and it is exhibited here at this absolutely wonderful museum. Wow, what a fascinating museum isn't it? It took about four hours to videotape all the exhibits that you saw here and I hope you have enjoyed each and every one of them. If you like what you saw by the way, don't forget to subscribe to my channel. This is Vic all the way from Beirut. This was the National Museum of Beirut here in Lebanon. Bye-bye.