Archaeological excavations of the Jesuit Father M. Tallon s.j. in the 1960s revealed a large number of dolmens in Menjez (more than 100). The studies of T. Steimer in 1995 dated and gave the keys to understanding these prehistoric monuments. With funds from the British Council, the municipality of Menjez in the Akkar offers a hiking circuit to discover 11 dolmens. It is possible to visit the monuments through the trails of a preserved environment, either alone or with a guide.
~ -5500
Human occupation traces in Menjez territory
Homo sapiens
~ -100 000
Ksar Akil rock shelter
Ras el Kelb cave
Antelias cave
Nachcharini cave
Use of bow & arrow
~ -9000
Gobëkli Tepe
Jerf El-Armar
Tell Qaramel
Arslan Tepe
~ -7000
Tell Labwe
~ 6000
Agriculture & farming
~ 5400
Human occupation traces in Menjez territory
~ -4700
Byblos
~ 4000
Metallurgy
~ 3700
Menjez
Qattina
Jebel Mutawwaq
Teleilat Ghassul
~ -1200 / -3500
Construction and use of themegaliths in Menjez
~ 3300
Dakerman
~ -2200
Byblos
Tell Arqa
~ -1700
Kamid el-Loz
~ -750 / -600
Re-occupation traces in the Menjez megaliths
~ -1200
Masafi el-Bithnah
Qusais-Rumeilah
~ -1100
Tyre
~ -1000
Byblos
~ 50
The Iturian Arabs impose their cults
~ 260
Maqâm el-Rabb transformed in the Greco-Roman style
~ 430
Maqâm el-Rabb transformed into a church
~ 1142
Qal`at el-Feliz sold to the Hospitallers
~ 1579
Presence of the Maronite Fathers
The Heritage House of Menjez presents the exhibition “Memories in the rock, Mankind’s Memories” with an emphasis on prehistoric megaliths. Panels, movies, models and engraved rocks explain how, why and when men built dolmens for their dead. Artefacts discovered in prehistoric monuments are presented to show some activities of daily life of 6,000 years ago (the original artefacts are preserved at the Lebanese Prehistory Museum in Beirut).
Film of the restored cover by Yann Bernard (on a Tara Steimer and Florian Cousseau design).
Discover 11 megalithic monuments of recent Prehistory and the Metal Ages (walking trail), admire the objects offered to the dead, and learn the history of these monuments, built and occupied by ancient societies.
Municipality of Menjez and Georges Youssef (Mayor)
Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban
British Council (Small Grant CPS 552-17)
Tara Steimer-Herbet (University de Geneva – Switzerland)
Valérie Porra-Kuteni (Château-Musée of Bélesta – France) and Tara Steimer-Herbet (University of Geneva)
Okajian (Tripoli – Lebanon)
FABRIKA (Beirut – Lebanon)
Zeina Haddad (Beirut – Lebanon)
Directorate General of Antiquities
Tara Steimer-Herbet, Florian Cousseau, Marie Besse (University of Geneva), V. Porra-Kuteni (Mus. Bélesta) et Maya Haïdar-Boustani (Museum of lebanese Prehistory – Beirut)
V. Porra-Kuteni (Mus. Bélesta) and Thierry Blaise (Bélesta – France)
Jean-Marie Giorgio (Rasiguères – France)