Report by: Jamal el Sahili

Translated by : Lina Yehya Reidan

 

 

 

Brisa, a small village in Hermel, is about 160 Km away from the capital Beirut and 12 Km away from mid Hermel region.

 

 

 

 

 

Brisa is known as a tourism historical destination. It boasts the two biggest boards known by the Babylonian culture, in addition to the longest Babylonian inscription in the world: (1,400 lines) which was found carved on its rocks. The letters of the inscriptions go back to the old Babylonian script.

 

It is said that when Nebuchadnezzar conquered the Levant in 605 B.C , he left a little note known as Stella in Wadi Brisa, saying : "I made this country happy. I made it so that the inhabitants of Lebanon live together in safety and nobody bothers them." 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nebuchadnezzar twin inscriptions at Brisa are carved on two rock faces in ravine near the town of Hermel in the North of Békaa Valley. The inscription at the right-hand side of the ravine (3.6 X 5.5m) was written in old Babylonian script. Its twin inscription (2.8 X 5.3m) faces it on the other side of the valley and was inscripted in neo-Babylonian script. Both inscriptions exhibit the same content and each is decorated with depictions of king Nebuchadnezzar.

 

Unfortunately, the rock at Brisa, although still standing witness to that era which Lebanon outlived, lost many of its parts, mainly the ones at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

The carving represents what was once a statue of a man with his right hand stretched out to catch an animal. At the feet of the man, is an inscription which most probably is a prayer for a certain god.

 

Moreover, the inscriptions carved on the rock consist of nine (9) columns distributed around the statue. They were studied, photographed and collated by archeologists and concerned people during recent visits to the region. Duly, a new improved study of Brisa inscriptions has been put forth.

 

 

 

 

 

Scientist Rocio Dariva, a specialist in Babylonian cuneiform writings, mentioned that the Babylonian inscriptions revealed the clear image of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s conquer of Lebanon's mountains. This pushed her to find institutions in her country to fund cleaning the inscriptions in cooperation with the conservation General Directorate. Thus, the directorate appointed a team for that mission. In fact, the team started directly cleaning the inscriptions.

 

On the other hand, at a certain distance from the inscriptions, is a Church built during the fifth century as recognized by certain writings found inside it. Sadly, only few columns and walls are left of the Church which suffered lack of attention, despite its historical importance.

 

 

 

 

 

Inscription preservation

 

Little has been done to preserve and protect the inscriptions in Brisa. The first step came from the Spanish archeologist who read and translated the inscriptions. But the second step, the rehabilitation of the site, is still waiting to be accomplished, in collaboration with Brisa citizens and municipality.

 

To preserve the vital historical importance of this region in the tourism sector, the Lebanese Association for studies and trainings made a move to bring the attention of concerned authorities at both cultural and tourism ministries, the ruins General Directorate and the region's municipalities, to grant this site, which represents glory in the history of Lebanon's memory a little official care, protection and tourism classification. 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a cry for all official, civil and popular bodies to organize a special day for this site to classify and place it on Lebanon's tourism map.