2025-01-04 Anfeh LAU Student End Of Semester Hike

This is a semi trail; thew original trail was trimmed to avoid mud baths to 50 students.
The trail is a seashore trail. It started from the old coastal road and after walking 200 meters we started our hike by the Mediterranean seashore. The first landmark was the salines where the white gold (sea salt) was harvested by coastal villagers living in the town of Anfeh and its surrounding villages. (Salines are abndonednow - Only ONE saline is operational). After the salines, we visited the Saydit El Natour Christian Orthodox Monastery close by. The head nun was a great host inviting us in to visit the premises and volunteered the story behind the existence of the monastery (see below).
The trail then followed the old railway that connected the Mediterranean coast from Haifa - Palestine all the way to Turkey.
The railway tracks lead us to the town of Anfeh where we visited old churches and then headed to the ruins of the Anfeh Phoenician kingdom and to Anforini (a small shore strip with shacks making up a multitude of seafood restaurants that open during late spring through the summer) where the bus picked us up to visit the Nabu museum in the village of Heri.
The way back was through the old coastal road.

Saydit El Natour monastery was built on the ruins of some pagan temple. The monastery was destroyed and built many times (story of modern day Lebanon). According to the head nun the monastery started as a church built by a person who started his life as a thug making his living by robbing caravans going between the north of Lebanon and the capital.
the spot where the thug stayed became known as the Natour area (Natour is the Arabic word for watchman - he watched caravans and robbed them). On one of those occasions, he robbed a priest and the priest told him that he is going to be a watchman of a different kind. A few years later, the thug had a change of heart and decided to become a good person and repent. Since he could not trust is instinct, the thug tied himself to a rock and threw the key in the sea saying to himself: God will find a way to free me if he accepts my penance. Many years later one of the fishermen that used to give him food, offered him a big fish. While cleaning the fish to make food, the key to the lock tying him to the place was found inside the fish. The thug took it as a sign from God that he is forgiven.
Again, this is the story as told by the nun who herself stated that it cannot be verified and because the monastery was burned/destroyed many times, there is no independent source to verify it.