Afqa ( ar, افقا; also spelled ''Afka'') is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
located in the
Byblos District
Byblos District ( ar, قضاء جبيل; transliteration: ''Qadaa' Jbeil''), also called the Jbeil District (''Jbeil'' is Lebanese Arabic for "Byblos"; standard Arabic ''Jubail''), is a district ('' qadaa'') of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of L ...
of the
Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate
Keserwan-Jbeil ( ar, كسروان - جبيل) is the most recently created governorate of Lebanon. It consists of the districts of Jbeil and Keserwan. Keserwan-Jbeil covers an area of and is bounded by the North Governorate to the north, the B ...
, northeast of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
.
It has an average elevation of 1,200 meters above sea level and a total land area of 934
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...
s.
Its inhabitants are predominantly
Shia Muslim
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
s.
Known in ancient times as Apheca or Afeka, the word can be interpreted as "source", is located in the mountains of
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, about 20 kilometres from the ancient city of
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
, which still stands just east of the town of
Qartaba.
It is the site of one of the finest waterfalls in the mountains of the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
,
[ ] which feeds into the
Adonis River
The Abraham River (, Nahr Ibrahim) also known as Adonis River (), is a small river in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate in Lebanon, with a length of about . The river emerges from a huge cavern, the Afqa Grotto, nearly above sea level before it dr ...
(known today as
Abraham River
The Abraham River (, Nahr Ibrahim) also known as Adonis River (), is a small river in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate in Lebanon, with a length of about . The river emerges from a huge cavern, the Afqa Grotto, nearly above sea level before it d ...
or Nahr Ibrahim in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
),
and forms
Lake Yammoune
Yammoune is a lake, nature reserve, village and municipality situated northwest of Baalbek in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. The village has a few hundred inhabitants.
During the 1970s Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur lived in Yam ...
, with which it is also associated by legend.
In
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by ...
was born and died at the foot of the falls in Afqa. The ruins of the celebrated temple of
Aphrodite Aphakitis— the Aphrodite particular to this site— are located there.
[ ]Sir Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...
and Sir James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.
Personal life
He was born on 1 Janua ...
further attribute the temple at Afqa to the honouring of Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart ( Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar ( East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name ...
or Ishtar
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...
(Ashtaroth
Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot and Asteroth), in demonology, was known to be the Great Duke of Hell in the first hierarchy with Beelzebub and Lucifer; he was part of the evil trinity. He is known to be a male figure most likely named after ...
). Afqa is aligned centrally between Baalbek and Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
, pointing to the summer solstice sunset over the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
. It is from Byblos that the myth was told of a mystical ark
Ark or ARK may refer to:
Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva''
* Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood
* Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses
Hebrew ''aron''
* ...
that came ashore containing the bones of Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
. The ark became stuck in a swamp until Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
found it and carried it back to Ancient Egypt.
History
Ottoman tax records, which did not differentiate different Muslim groups from each other, indicate Afqa, or "Ifqi", had 20 Muslim households and six bachelors in 1523, 38 Muslim households and five bachelors in 1530, and 25 Muslim households and 15 bachelors in 1543.
Physical description
The waterfall at Afqa is the source for the River Adonis and is located on a bluff that forms an immense natural amphitheatre.[ The river emerges from a large limestone cave in the cliff wall which stores and channels water from the melted snow of the mountains before releasing it into springs and streams below.][ At Afqa, several watery threads flow from the cave to form numerous cataracts, a scene of great beauty.][ The cave has over two miles (three km) of known passageways inside.]
A great and ancient temple is located here, where ritual prostitution
Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, cult prostitution, and religious prostitution are rites consisting of paid intercourse performed in the context of religious worship, possibly as a form of fertility rite or divine marriage (). Scholars ...
was practicised until the time of Constantine. Frazer attributes its construction to the legendary forebear of King Cinyras, who was said to have founded a sanctuary for Aphrodite (i.e. Astarte).[ Reconstructed on grander scale in Hellenistic times, then destroyed by the Emperor ]Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...
in the fourth century, it was partially rebuilt by the later fourth-century emperor, Julian the Apostate.[ The site was finally abandoned during the reign of ]Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
[ Massive hewn blocks and a fine column of Syenite granite still mark the site, on a terrace facing the source of the river.][
The remains of a ]Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
aqueduct that carried the waters of the River Adonis to the ancient inhabitants of Byblos are also located here.[
Edward Robinson and Eli Smith camped at the site in 1852, merely remarking on its "shapeless ruins" and the difficulty of transport of two massive columns of Syenite granite. . Frazer describes the village at Afqa in his 1922 book, '' The Golden Bough'' as
]"...the miserable village which still bears the name of Afqa at the head of the wild, romantic, wooded gorge of the Adonis. The hamlet stands among groves of noble walnut-trees on the brink of the lyn. A little way off the river rushes from a cavern at the foot of a mighty amphitheatre of towering cliffs to plunge in a series of cascades into the awful depths of the glen. The deeper it descends, the ranker and denser grows the vegetation, which, sprouting from the crannies and fissures of the rocks, spreads a green veil over the roaring or murmuring stream in the tremendous chasm below. There is something delicious, almost intoxicating, in the freshness of these tumbling waters, in the sweetness and purity of the mountain air, in the vivid green of the vegetation.
Possible early sanctuary of El
Marvin H. Pope (Yale University) identified the home of El in the Ugaritic texts
The Ugaritic texts are a corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered since 1928 in Ugarit (Ras Shamra) and Ras Ibn Hani in Syria, and written in Ugaritic, an otherwise unknown Northwest Semitic language. Approximately 1,500 texts and fragments h ...
of ca. 1200 BCE, described as "at the source of the worivers, in the midst of the fountains of the wodeeps", with this famous source of the river Adonis and Yammoune
Yammoune is a lake, nature reserve, village and municipality situated northwest of Baalbek in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. The village has a few hundred inhabitants.
During the 1970s Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur lived in Yam ...
, an intermittent lake on the other side of the mountain, which Pope asserted was closely associated with it in legend.
Mythology
In classical Greek mythology, Afqa is associated with the cult of Aphrodite and Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by ...
.[ According to the myth, Cinyras, the King of Cyprus seduced his daughter ]Myrrha
Myrrha (Greek: , ''Mýrra''), also known as Smyrna (Greek: , ''Smýrna''), is the mother of Adonis in Greek mythology. She was transformed into a myrrh tree after having had intercourse with her father, and gave birth to Adonis in tree form. A ...
who was transformed into a tree that bears her name (see: Myrrh).[ After several months, the tree split open and the child Adonis emerged. He was reared by Aphrodite, who became enamored of him, causing her lover Ares to grow jealous. Ares sent a vicious boar to kill Adonis.][ At the pool at the foot of the falls of Afqa, Adonis bled to death from a deep wound in the groin.][ Aphrodite despaired at his death and out of pity for her the gods allowed Adonis to ascend from Hades for a short period each year.][
Each spring at Afqa, the melting snows flood the river, bringing a reddish mud into the stream from the steep mountain slopes.][ The red stain can be seen feeding into the river and far out to the ]Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
.[ Legend held this to be the blood of Adonis, renewed each year, at the time of his death. ]Lucian of Samosata
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstiti ...
, a Syrian by birth, describes how a local man of Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
debunked the legend:
"'This river, my friend and guest, passes through the Libanus: now this Libanus abounds in red earth. The violent winds which blow regularly on those days bring down into the river a quantity of earth resembling vermilion. It is this earth that turns the river to red. And thus the change in the river's colour is due, not to blood as they affirm, but to the nature of the soil.' This was the story of the man of Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
. But even assuming that he spoke the truth, yet there certainly seems to me something supernatural in the regular coincidence of the wind and the colouring of the river."
Lucian also describes practices by the Byblians of worship which some told him centered not on Adonis, but Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
.[ He writes that he mastered the secret rites of Adonis at the temple at Afqa and that the locals there asserted that the legend about Adonis was true and occurred in their country.][ Lucian describes the rites, annually performed, that involved the beating of breasts and wailing, and the "perform ng ftheir secret ritual amid signs of mourning through the whole countryside. When they have finished their mourning and wailing, they sacrifice in the first place to Adonis, as to one who has departed this life: after this they allege that he is alive again, and exhibit his effigy to the sky."][
Also in the fertile valley surrounding the river, millions of scarlet anemones bloom.][ Known as Adonis' flowers, according to legend, they spring from his blood, spilled as he lay dying beneath the trees at Afqa, and return each year in remembrance.][
In his "Terminal Essay" in the 1885 translation of ''The Arabian Nights'', Burton describes the temple at Afqa as a place of pilgrimage for the ]Metawali
Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...
sect of Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...
Islam, where vows are addressed to the ''Sayyidat al-Kabirah'' or "the Great Lady".[ In the early 20th century, strips of white cloth were still being attached to the ancient fig that shadows the source, and Metawalis and Christians alike were bringing the sick to be cured at "the abode of Sa’īdat Afkā, i.e. a feminine spirit of the same name as the place. Her husband built this temple. He was killed by a wild beast, and she searched among the mountains until she found his mangled body. This is evidently a modified view of the ancient myth of Astarte and Adonis," Lewis Bayles Paton reported in 1919, with a photograph of the cloth-hung fig tree. W. F. Albright noted this survival of this "female saint" as the most remarkable among "very few direct reflections of paganism in the names and legends of modern ]weli
The ''Weli'', formerly ''Welli'', is a playing card used in the Salzburg and William Tell card decks, which are Austrian regional patterns of the German-suited playing cards. It has the value of 6 of Bells and, in the South Tyrol variant of t ...
s."[Albright, "Islam and the Religions of the Ancient Orient" ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 60.3 (September 1940:283-301) p. 299. Albright insisted on the spelling ''Seiyidet'': "the spelling 'Sa’īdat Afkā' is naturally wrong".]
2006 Lebanon War
During the 2006 Lebanon War, the Afqa bridge that connects Mount Lebanon with the Beqaa valley was one of five bridges destroyed by Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i jets.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
A letter
from Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highl ...
describing Afqa in 1900
Map of Lebanon and geographical coordinates for Afqa
Afqa on www.geographic.org
3D Google Map of the Afqa Grotto on gmap3d
Afqa on Localiban
{{Roman Archaeological sites in Beirut & Lebanon
Populated places in Byblos District
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon
Archaeological sites in Lebanon
Levantine mythology
Ancient Roman temples
Roman sites in Lebanon
Tourist attractions in Lebanon