War casts shadow over Lebanon's ancient Baalbek
Voice of America
FILE - This picture shows closed shops on an empty street in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck on Oct. 19, 2024. FILE - This picture shows the entrance of the historical Palmyra hotel in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Oct. 19, 2024. FILE - A picture taken on May 28, 2019, shows the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Qadisha valley, surrounded by the towns of Bcharre (R) and Hasroun, in the Lebanese mountains north of Beirut. A man inspects the damage in a house that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley on Oct. 21, 2024. FILE - Part of the temples of Baalbek, a UNESCO world heritage site in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, illuminated in blue light, Oct. 24, 2015.
Since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, the famed Palmyra Hotel in east Lebanon's Baalbek has been without visitors, but long-time employee Rabih Salika refuses to leave — even as bombs drop nearby.
A Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials researcher controls a wheelchair with stiffness-variable "morphing" wheels in Daejeon, South Korea, Nov. 5, 2024. The "morphing" wheel can roll over obstacles up to 1.3 times the height of its radius. Inspired by the surface tension of water droplets, it goes from solid to fluid when it encounters impediments.
FILE - Part of the temples of Baalbek, a UNESCO world heritage site in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, illuminated in blue light, Oct. 24, 2015. FILE - This picture shows closed shops on an empty street in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Oct. 19, 2024. FILE - People walk near the Roman ruins of Baalbek, Lebanon, Jan. 5, 2024. FILE - A man sits amidst the rubble at a site damaged in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the town of Al-Ain in the Baalbek region, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Lebanon, Nov. 6, 2024.
Dr. Jaafar al Jotheri, shown here Nov. 10, 2024, holds satellite images and explores the site of the Battle of al-Qadisiyah, which was fought in Mesopotamia -- present-day Iraq -- in the 630s AD. A desert area with scattered plots of agricultural land with features that closely matched the description of the al-Qadisiyah battle site described in historic texts, Nov. 10, 2024.