Aanjar, 58 kilometers from Beirut, is completely different from any other archaeological experience you’ll have in Lebanon. At other historical sites in the country, different epochs and civilizations are superimposed one on top of the other. Aanjar dates exclusively from one period, the Umayyad dynasty. Aanjar has a special beauty. The city’s slender columns and fragile arches stand in contrast to the massive bulk of the nearby Anti-Lebanon mountains, an eerie background for Aanjar’s extensive ruins and the memories of its short, but energetic, moment in history.