Comments on: Beirut, Lebanon – Photos Part 1 http://joe.in/beirut-lebanon-photos-part-1/ The Travel, Photo and Video Blog of Joe Taheny Sun, 23 Feb 2025 07:44:37 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Joe http://joe.in/beirut-lebanon-photos-part-1/#comment-160 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:26:00 +0000 http://joe.in/?p=150#comment-160 Thank you adiamondinsunlight for the correction. The article you pointed out is very interesting.

]]> By: adiamondinsunlight http://joe.in/beirut-lebanon-photos-part-1/#comment-161 Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:03:00 +0000 http://joe.in/?p=150#comment-161 Oops, Joe – you may not want to thank me! I realized this morning that I had given you the right information about … the wrong building!

Burj Al Murr is the OTHER gutted skyscraper, further up on the same road. Your photo is of the old Holiday Inn, which was open and functioning for a few swinging years before the war started.

(If you look at the top floor, you will see the tell-tale bulge of one of the old-style Holiday Inn revolving restaurants!)

The Holiday Inn was _also_ used during the hotel wars (hence the name …).

Hanin Ghaddar recently did a wonderful piece on central Beirut’s “iconic eyesores”. It was published on a very political site, the pro-March 14 Now Lebanon, so I send it on to you with that caveat – but her piece is lovely and very rich: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=5691.

]]> By: adiamondinsunlight http://joe.in/beirut-lebanon-photos-part-1/#comment-162 Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:30:00 +0000 http://joe.in/?p=150#comment-162 Dear Joe,
The abandoned skyscraper is the Burj El Murr (Murr Tower), which was only partially built when the civil war broke out in 1975. Its frame was finished during a lull the following year, making it a prime militia location for the “hotel wars” of 1977-78.

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