Beaufortitude

A straight road points south like an arrow heading out of Nabatiye where it appears, perched on the top of a hill in the distance like a stony crown. Beaufort Castle, built by the Crusaders in the Middle Ages and occupied by Palestinians and subsequently Israelis in modern history, has an imposing viewpoint over the southern Lebanese landscape.

Until recently, it has only been possible to visit this part of the country with a permit from the Lebanese Army. At least, this was the impression I was under as I visited the army base at Saida, the regional capital, to ask for a permit to cross the military checkpoints in the far south. Having being guided in the right direction several times by friendly, helpful soldiers (a characteristic that seems to be common amongst Lebanese military personnel), I found myself in an office within the army base being asked about my motives for visiting the south by a young man in civilian clothes. Several of his colleagues, also in jeans and leather jackets, sat around on sofas watching television. I was eventually denied the permit without further explanation, but was told that no permission was needed to visit Beaufort Castle anyway. Although I didn’t feel I could rely entirely on this piece of information, I decided to give it a try. I took a bus from Saida to Nabatiye and then negotiated with a taxi driver the trip to and from the castle. Any doubts I had had showed themselves to be without basis as the comfortable, dark green Mercedes taxi approached the winding turns towards the entrance of the fortress.

The castle is mainly in a ruinous state, but some rebuilding work is going on. There were no other tourists but several building workers, digging and throwing rocks into the valley at a leisurely pace in the afternoon sun. The taxi driver, Yousef, offered to show me around. Although he must be well into his 60s, he hopped around the ruins with the agility of someone half that age. “Intibeh – shwe shwe” – “careful, take it easy” he warned as I stumbled around the entrance to one of the castle’s inner rooms. He pointed out the landmarks as we looked out over the stupendous view south and east: the Litani River flowing at the bottom of the chasm below, the town of Marjayoun, the occupied Golan Heights, Syria, and Israel beyond the hills.

The castle itself has several levels and many chambers, and it took a good half an hour to walk around all of it, even though much has now fallen down. It was occupied by the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1976 to 1982, before they were displaced during the Israeli invasion of that year. Bullet holes and shrapnel wounds can be spotted on the castle masonry, a misalignment of military objectives from different eras. The Israel Defence Forces built bunkers next to the castle after occupying the site. Inside these, graffiti in Hebrew as well as Arabic can be discerned. The Israeli army left the castle when it withdrew from South Lebanon in 2000.

Journalist Robert Fisk, who visited the PLO at Beaufort Castle during an Israeli siege, describes in his book Pity the Nation his feelings at the time:

“Armoured men with swords had clanked down the stairwells here; now the steps were used by gunmen in grubby camouflage fatigues”

This feeling of being caught between one time and another persists here. There are no longer many people or much interest in the site and the enormous open space of the valley lends a calm quiet to the atmosphere, making it an easy place to stop and reflect. Still, the weight of history hangs heavily in the air.

From Wikipedia

From Wikipedia