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(Mixed Ancient Remains and a Lute Maker 80 km)

   
Take the road north of Baalbeck, turning right at the sign for Ras Baalbeck. This is a good-sized town built  along what looks like a dry riverbed. In fact, this watercourse is what  saves the village from floods caused by winter  rains and melting snow.
    On your left as you approach the village are the modest, but historically interesting ruins of a Byzantine church built on and from the remains of an earlier Roman temple.
    Today's Ras Baalbech was the former Byzantine "Conna" mentioned in the official documents of the Council of Chalcedon.
    Another church, still in use and located in the village itself, is made with materials from a Roman building.




    Of  more contemporary interest is a villager who welcomes visits to his workshop where he crafts ouds (Arabic lute), guitars, violins and bouzouks, whose shape is similar to the balalaika.
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