
Photo by Alexandra Talty
Chatah explains why Lebanon uses both the dollar and the local Lebanese pound, or lira.
By Alexandra Talty
Apr 26, 2018
Downtown Beirut
After a four-year hiatus, Ronnie Chatah’s popular walking tours are once again helping locals and visitors dive deeper into the Lebanese capital.
As I turn the corner to meet the Walk Beirut tour, there is a sweet smell of magnolias in the air. It is a sunny March day, and first whispers of spring in Beirut are everywhere. It’s Sunday, so most people are with their families for a long lunch, and the streets are nearly empty. The Western weekend schedule is just one of the things that sets this Mediterranean country apart from other countries in the Middle East, which relax on Fridays and Saturdays.
Led by Ronnie Chatah, 36, the Walk Beirut tour takes visitors, locals, and expats on a four-hour journey through the heart and history of the city. The tour is in high-demand after a long hiatus: Four years ago, Chatah took a break from his life as a self-professed storyteller after the assassination of his father, Mohamad Chatah, former finance minister and ambassador to the United States. When the son began offering his tours again in January, the first departure had over 90 guests.
Our fearless leader arrives with his wavy hair pulled back into a pony tail, making him look like a modern Romantic poet. The style conflicts with his briefcase in hand, but Chatah is a man who is at home with contradiction. He makes his way around the group, greeting everyone by name and confirming reservations with soft banter.
There are over 40 guests.“It is big group,” one tour attendee says,“but Ronnie is loud.”Chatah jokes, “We’re really good at making religion here.”
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For our next few stops, Chatah delves into the city’s architectural history. In many neighborhoods, the effects of the civil war are still visible in bullet-marked buildings and freestanding facades that were once homes or shops. But he makes sure to point out the rich blend of Lebanese, Turkish, and French influences, explaining that, “some parts of Beirut still look like Beirut.” Modern feats of design with straight lines and glass windows are interspersed with classic older buildings.
“I don’t know my country, I don’t know my city,” Faten Redah, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher, tells me as we walk. This tour offers a rare opportunity to hear a modern history of Lebanon for visitors and locals alike. Anything following the beginning of the disastrous civil war is studiously avoided in schools and museums. Many believe that the civil war was so destructive that to teach it would be to indoctrinate a new generation. Chatah steadfastly disagrees with this and is trying to share the story of his country both with outsiders and with his compatriots.
One imposing remnant of the war has become Lebanon’s most iconic building: a decrepit former Holiday Inn. Now standing 24 pockmarked stories tall with trees growing out of balconies, the hotel was once the largest Holiday Inn in the Middle East, replete with a turning dance floor. It was only open for a few months from 1974 to 1975 before it was taken over by militias during the infamous Battle of the Hotels.Embroiled in real estate kerfuffles, the building has remained empty. “[We] accidentally left an impressive reminder of the civil war,” Chatah says.“Twenty-eight years later, we’re reminded every day of what we did to ourselves.”
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Heading through an anesthetized downtown that is home to a high-end and controversial development that turned old souks into an open-air mall, we stop at the recovered Roman baths. There are faint traces of mosaics and columns in the apparent rubble, which spreads away in grid formation from the impressive Grand Serai (the Prime Minister’s headquarters). These are just a peek at the centuries of ruins layered beneath the city, from Roman to Byzantine to Phoenician.
It is getting dark as we crowd around the statue at the heart of Martyrs Square in Beirut. Someone offers me a chocolate-covered biscuit. Sharing snacks with strangers is de rigueur here, a custom that took some adjustment for this American.>>Next: 6 Reasons to Visit Beirut Despite the Travel Warning
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