Khandaq al-Ghamiq: hub for old and new July 31, 2013 12:24 AM By Samya Kullab The Daily Star BEIRUT: The main road of Khandaq al-Ghamiq in Beirut is named after the neighborhood itself, though this isn’t inscribed anywhere. Residents bustle about with the commanding gaze of Imam Musa Sadr’s portrait at seemingly every corner. Carpenters raze away blocks of wood as elderly women sit serenely on balconies overlooking the street and loudspeakers resound with the afternoon sermon of the local mosque. The sheer volume of activity in the quarter goes unnoticed by the Beirutis beyond the Fouad Chehab bridge, who would not know it existed were it not for a traffic detour. Yet, Khandaq al-Ghamiq’s prime location, straddling Downtown and Damascus Road, has directed its fate since the Ottoman era: from being one of the first areas to emanate from the medieval walled city, to transforming into a hub of intellectualism and publishing, to becoming a fault line during the Civil War, to its current status embodying steep real estate potential. The home of 83-year-old Hasan Tarhini can be found up a spiraling alleyway that leads to his haphazardly stocked convenience store, which is attached to his abode. The walls of the alley, known as Thieves Alley, measure three meters in height. Local myth has it that bandits would occasionally hide out in the area to escape the authorities. Tarhini lives right by the Bashoura Cemetery, or as he refers to it, “my best and most quiet neighbors.” His living quarters have remained unchanged since the day he arrived to Khandaq al-Ghamiq in 1953. “I fled from extreme poverty when I was 11-years-old,” recalls Tarhini, who hails originally from the village of Abba in Nabatieh. “I was a shepherd. I recall I sold goats for half a lira back then.” Read more: dailystar.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Jul-31/225696-khandaq-al-ghamiq-hub-for-old-and-new.ashx#ixzz2abirFUd0
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 07:51:26 +0000
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