WADI ABOU JMIEL

Built in the middle of the 19th century according to Levantine architecture, Wadi Abu Jmil is the former Jewish quarter of Beirut. Originally, Beirut inhabitants called it Wadi al-Yahoud, the Valley of the Jews, but nowadays only a few Jewish families still live there. Located at the foot of the Grand Seraglio, the neighborhood was partially spared by the war, but after much looting, most of Wadi Abu Jmil's heritage has disappeared into the wilderness. Efforts have recently been made to recover some rare pieces, such as the synagogue altar. Included in the project to rebuild the town centre, Wadi Abu Jmil was inhabited during the 1980s and 1990s by a refugee population who received compensation for leaving it. Today, most of the old buildings have been razed to the ground by bulldozers. Solidere's town planners had no feelings for preserving an area that had some very beautiful traditional houses. Only a handful of old buildings remain, some of which have not yet been renovated (some are even squatted by Syrian refugees). The area has been redesigned by the Lebanese architect Nabil Gholam, to accommodate new secure residential complexes comprising several buildings distributed around green areas. An ambitious project for one of the most emblematic districts of Lebanese cosmopolitanism. Unfortunately, due to its proximity to the city centre, the district is regularly closed to the public for security reasons.