9:00 AM — Departure from Beirut Your driver meets the group at your hotel and heads east on the Damascus highway — over the Lebanese mountains and down into the Bekaa Valley. First stop is Anjar, about an hour away.

Anjar — specialist local guide · the only Umayyad city in the Levant Built in the early 8th century by Caliph Walid I — the same ruler who commissioned the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem — and abandoned within decades, never rebuilt. Colonnaded streets dividing the city into four quarters, a grand palace with over 40 towers, a mosque, and bathhouses — all still standing in the Bekaa plain. Most visitors to Lebanon drive straight past without stopping. A specialist local guide makes sure you understand exactly what you are looking at — the urban planning, the speed of construction, the mystery of the abandonment — and why Anjar is one of the most significant and most underappreciated archaeological sites in the Middle East.

Stone of the Pregnant Woman — the quarry that sets the scale Before the temples — the Stone of the Pregnant Woman in the ancient Roman quarry. A single limestone block, 21 metres long, weighing an estimated 1,000 tonnes, cut 2,000 years ago and never moved. Your driver explains the engineering logic — and why this unfinished block is the best possible preparation for what you are about to enter.

Baalbek Temple Complex — specialist local guide The greatest Roman temple complex on earth — with a specialist local Baalbek guide whose knowledge of these structures goes well beyond what visiting guides can offer. The Temple of Jupiter on Trilithon stones each weighing over 800 tonnes — the largest dressed stones in human history. The Temple of Bacchus, larger than the Parthenon and almost entirely intact — the best-preserved Roman temple in the world. The Temple of Venus completing a complex that took three centuries to build. Having already seen Anjar with a local guide, the Roman world of Baalbek lands with even greater force — two civilisations, the same valley, two specialist interpreters.

Lunch in Baalbek or Zahle — included Lebanese mezze and grilled meats — either in Baalbek or at a riverside restaurant in Zahle, Lebanon's celebrated food capital, depending on the group's preference and timing. Fully included in the tour price — nothing extra to pay.

Chateau Ksara — Roman caves, Lebanese wine, founded 1857 Lebanon's oldest winery — founded by Jesuit monks in 1857 above 2 kilometres of Roman cave cellars where wine ages at a naturally constant temperature year-round. The cave tour connects directly back to the Roman world you explored this morning at Baalbek — same civilisation, same valley, a different kind of legacy entirely. Then a tasting of Ksara's iconic Cabernet-Syrah blends, crisp Blanc de Blancs, and celebrated Sunset Rosé. A day that opened at an 8th-century Umayyad ghost city closes in ancient Roman wine caves. The Bekaa in one day.

Return to Beirut — approx. 6:00–7:00 PM Drop-off at your Beirut hotel — an Umayyad ghost city, the world's greatest Roman temples, and ancient wine caves. Two specialist local guides. One complete Bekaa day.