Baskinta’s name flows musically across the lips, and ignites memories of greatness and wealth. Its Syriac connotation means “the abode”. Once considered the Lebanese hometown of renowned writers, philosophers, musicians and poets, the intellectual hub of the Middle East, leaves nobody immune to its mesmerizing beauty.
Poet Mikhael Naimy depicted its enchanting landscape, rich nature with pine forests on its west side, apple, peach orchards and cedar forest in its heights. Baskinta reigns supreme, protected on its south side, by the narrow and almost impenetrable Skull Valley, that has protected it from invasions in the past.
Located in the upper Metn region, at around 1250 meters above sea level, at the foot of the majestic Sannine Mountain, on the cliff side, the village is a true masterpiece, with antique houses, destitute Greek palaces, relics from ancient cemeteries, and wealth from the golden era of the Phoenician and Greek civilizations.
Even the Gods and kings, took refuge in the beautiful Baskinta, the Phoenician’s temples of Adonis and Atargatis as well as The Greek’s temple of Bacchus, are a testament to this village’s captivating beauty, worthy of the divine and noblemen.
Even the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, Queen Helena, is said to have visited Baskinta.
Baskinta, which in the past birthed Lebanon’s greatest poets, novelists, and philosophers, like Mikhail Naimy and award-winning author Amin Maalouf, reminds us of that Lebanon might be a small country in size but it once was synonymous to greatness and wealth.
The Interviewer Mag 