Bratwurst Boy
18 Oct 2024
News / Polish military contingent in Lebanon. [184]
The pics I have seen where from the 70's....as far as I know Israel had been founded in 1948.....
Before it became a city synonymous with urban disasters, conflict and chaos, Beirut was a colourful, prosperous city known as the Paris of the Middle East.
Between 1955 and 1975, in its Golden Age - after gaining independence from the French but before civil war erupted - the Lebanese capital was a cultural and financial hub for the region.
It was a cosmopolitan mecca revered for its rich culture, French architecture, world-class food, fashion, art and glamorous lifestyle offerings that lured curious tourists and high-flying celebrities, alike, to its shores.
Luxury hotels and clubs dotted throughout the city made Beirut a "jet-setter's playground, with a social scene that rivalled its European counterparts", Vogue wrote.
The most famous luxury hotel, the Hotel Saint-Georges, played host to Hollywood icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, and French starlet Brigitte Bardot, and royals like King Hussein of Jordan, and the Shah of Iran and his wife Princess Soraya....
thenightly.com.au/world/how-beirut-was-once-known-as-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-before-it-came-to-a-brutal-end-in-1975-civil-war-c-15605589
..Hamra Street was likened to the Champs-Élysées of Beirut, lined with fashion stores, theatres, restaurants, cafes, and hotels visited by artists, poets, writers, and intellectuals.
There were more than a dozen cinemas on Hamra Street alone - including the famous Eldorado, the Picadilly, and the Versailles - cementing Beirut's title as the cinema capital of the region....
Maybe I should have more explicitely said: The Palis happened!
...But those glittering 20 years came to a brutal end in 1975 when civil war broke out and tore the city, and country, apart.
Over the next 15 years, about 150,000 people would be killed - or presumed dead after being kidnapped or disappeared - and almost one million people would flee Lebanon.
Beirut would be split into hostile territories along the Green Line, the battleline that ran through the middle of the city where Christian militias (to the east) exchanged fire with Palestinian and Sunni militias (to the west).
photorientalist.org/exhibitions/lebanon-technicolor-growing-golden-age/article-2/
The pics I have seen where from the 70's....as far as I know Israel had been founded in 1948.....
Before it became a city synonymous with urban disasters, conflict and chaos, Beirut was a colourful, prosperous city known as the Paris of the Middle East.
Between 1955 and 1975, in its Golden Age - after gaining independence from the French but before civil war erupted - the Lebanese capital was a cultural and financial hub for the region.
It was a cosmopolitan mecca revered for its rich culture, French architecture, world-class food, fashion, art and glamorous lifestyle offerings that lured curious tourists and high-flying celebrities, alike, to its shores.
Luxury hotels and clubs dotted throughout the city made Beirut a "jet-setter's playground, with a social scene that rivalled its European counterparts", Vogue wrote.
The most famous luxury hotel, the Hotel Saint-Georges, played host to Hollywood icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, and French starlet Brigitte Bardot, and royals like King Hussein of Jordan, and the Shah of Iran and his wife Princess Soraya....
thenightly.com.au/world/how-beirut-was-once-known-as-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-before-it-came-to-a-brutal-end-in-1975-civil-war-c-15605589
..Hamra Street was likened to the Champs-Élysées of Beirut, lined with fashion stores, theatres, restaurants, cafes, and hotels visited by artists, poets, writers, and intellectuals.
There were more than a dozen cinemas on Hamra Street alone - including the famous Eldorado, the Picadilly, and the Versailles - cementing Beirut's title as the cinema capital of the region....
Maybe I should have more explicitely said: The Palis happened!
...But those glittering 20 years came to a brutal end in 1975 when civil war broke out and tore the city, and country, apart.
Over the next 15 years, about 150,000 people would be killed - or presumed dead after being kidnapped or disappeared - and almost one million people would flee Lebanon.
Beirut would be split into hostile territories along the Green Line, the battleline that ran through the middle of the city where Christian militias (to the east) exchanged fire with Palestinian and Sunni militias (to the west).
photorientalist.org/exhibitions/lebanon-technicolor-growing-golden-age/article-2/