It seems our Cedars have another tree that’s giving them a run for their money. According to this article (link) that a friend sent me, Lebanon houses the world’s oldest living olive trees in the village of Bechaaleh in the Batroun caza.
The trees, which are over 6000 years old, have withstood a whole lot in their history including severe exploitation, climate changes and governments which, quite simply, don’t give a rat’s ass about such a thing. At 1300 meters of altitude, their location is also unique as it is rare for olive trees to grow at altitudes above 1000m.
I’ve always known the town of Bechaaleh, a 15 min drive from my hometown Ebrine, housed old olive trees but I didn’t know they were the world’s oldest. I guess I must visit soon – if the roads permit (Batroun’s roads are horrible [pictures]).
Let’s hope we don’t end up having an environment minister like our current minister of culture Gaby Layoun who doesn’t care the least about preserving the environment and ends up hacking these trees away. You know it’s entirely possible in such a country.
Until then, I figured this is interesting enough to break the whole Ali Abdallah – Snowstorm mania.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Pingback: Lebanon Has The World’s Oldest Living Olive Trees | Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News
That’s really awesome! This summer I was on the island of Corfu (the only part of contemporary Greece never occupied by the Ottomans), and they have a special kind of olive trees. Their olive trees caught some sort of weird disease which make them deformed, but luckily it doesn’t reduce the quality of the olives. How do they gather the olives in Lebanon? In Corfu they used black nets placed underneath the trees.
I also saw many olive trees in Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile, the olive branch is a symbol of peace, humans love their irony.
LikeLike
By the way, from what I read on cultural heritage in Lebanon and your treatment of it, your minister of culture should be on the international watchlist for cultural terrorism. And may I further suggest a UNESCO peacekeeping force?
LikeLike
Didn’t know such a thing existed. But yeah he should be on it definitely.
LikeLike
I don’t know if it exists, but “they” should create one!
LikeLike
Yeah they gather olives the same way here. It’s a huge thing actually – my family owns a lot of olive land so it’s a big deal every single year. I never help out though.
LikeLike
No cedars? Your ancestors were too greedy on the trees. Anyway, I hope they’ll never get uprooted! Be it by war, nature or incompetent politicians.
LikeLike
No we still have lots of Cedars. The biggest forest in the country (over 5% of the entire country’s area) is a Cedar forest. However, the main one has been extensively exploited since ancient times by countless civilizations.
LikeLike
I know you have cedars, I meant to say your family doesn’t ;-). Deforestation sure is a hobby of many civilizations, the Venetians did the same along the Adriatic coast. I have been to a cedar forest in southern France, but these were “Algerian” cedars if that makes any sense.
LikeLike
Haha no we haven’t gone into that business yet. Those trees are sure hard and tedious to grow!
I can assure you that Lebanese Cedars are the best. 😛
LikeLike
Thank you for the interesting information Elie.
Here is a video of the process of manufacturing olive oil in lebanon..
LikeLike
Thank you but I’ve actually seen all of this firsthand. As well as making olive-oil based soap.
The perks of being from the Lebanese North.
LikeLike
Pingback: The Milkman – Part 3 | Livin' La Vida Loca