Cedars of God


The Cedars of God, located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharri, Lebanon, are one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that anciently thrived across Mount Lebanon. All early modern travelers' accounts of the wild cedars appear to refer to the ones in Bsharri; the Christian monks of the monasteries in the Kadisha Valley venerated the trees for centuries.
The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, and Turks used their timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding, and in the Ottoman Empire their timber was used to construct railways.

History

Ancient history

The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests and the tree is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the extent of these forests has been markedly reduced.
It was once said that a battle occurred between the demigods and the humans over the beautiful and divine forest of Cedar trees near southern Mesopotamia. This forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was completely bared of its trees when humans entered its grounds 4700 years ago, after winning the battle against the guardians of the forest, the demigods. The story also tells that Gilgamesh used cedar wood to build his city.
Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Israelites and Turks. The Phoenicians used the Cedars for their merchant fleets. They needed timbers for their ships and the Cedar woods made them the “first sea trading nation in the world”. The Egyptians used cedar resin for the mummification process and the cedar wood for some of “their first hieroglyph bearing rolls of papyrus”. In the Bible, Solomon procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The emperor Hadrian claimed these forests as an imperial domain, and destruction of the cedar forests was temporarily halted.

Early modern history

All early modern travellers' accounts of the wild cedars of Lebanon appear to refer to the Bsharri cedars.
Pierre Belon visited the area in 1550, making him the first modern traveller to identify the Cedars of God in his ‘’ Observations’’. Belon counted 28 trees:
“At a considerable height up the mountains the traveller arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in the valley. Thence proceeding four miles up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on top of the mountain, and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number, though it is difficult to count them, they being distant from each other a few paces. These the Archbishop of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner as they now stand. No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated and it is generally so covered with snow as to be only accessible in summer".

Leonhard Rauwolf followed in 1573-75, counting 24 trees:
“saw nothing higher, but only a small hill before us, all covered with snow, at the bottom whereof the high cedar trees were standing… And, although this hill hath, in former ages, been quite covered with cedars, yet they are since so decreased, that I could tell no more but twenty-four that stood round about in a circle and two others, the branches whereof are quite decayed for age. I also went about this place to look for young ones, but could find none at all".

Jean de Thévenot counted 23 trees in 1655:
"It is a Fobbery to say, that if one reckon the Cedars of Mount Lebanon twice, he shall have a different number, for in all, great and small, there is neither more or less than twenty three of them".

Laurent d'Arvieux in 1660 counted 20 trees; and Henry Maundrell in 1697 counted 16 trees of the “very old” type:
“Sunday, May 9 The noble, mentioning the cedars in some texts, and Henry Bordeaux came in 1922 and wrote, Yamilé, a story about the place. Concern for the protection of the biblical "cedars of God" goes back to 1876, when the grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats. Nevertheless, during World War I, British troops used cedar to build railroads.

Recent history

Time, along with the exploitation of the Cedars’ wood, has led to a decrease in the number of cedar trees in Lebanon. However, Lebanon is still widely known for its cedar tree history, as they are the emblem of the country and the symbol of the Lebanese flag. The remaining trees survive in mountainous areas, where they are the dominant tree species. This is the case on the slopes of Mount Makmel that tower over the Kadisha Valley, where the Cedars of God are found at an altitude of more than. Four trees have reached a height of, with their trunks reaching.

World Heritage Site

In 1998, the Cedars of God were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Current status

The forest is rigorously protected. It is possible to tour if escorted by an authorized guide. After a preliminary phase in which the land was cleared of detritus, the sick plants treated, and the ground fertilized, the "Committee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest" initiated a reforestation program in 1985. These efforts will only be appreciable in a few decades due to the slow growth of cedars. In these areas the winter offers incredible scenery, and the trees are covered with a blanket of snow.

Biblical and other ancient references

The Cedar Forest of ancient Mesopotamian religion appears in several sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned 103 times in the Bible. In the Hebrew text it is named ארז and in the Greek text it is named κέδρου. Example verses include:
  • "Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down."
  • "He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit."
  • "The priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer"
  • "The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon"
  • "The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon"
  • "I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive"
  • "Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade"
  • "I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars"
  • "The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted."
  • cedar as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.

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