Anjar — the ghost city nobody puts on their list Most people visiting Baalbek drive straight past Anjar without knowing what they are missing. Your guide makes sure you do not. The Umayyad ruins of Anjar are the only surviving example of a complete Umayyad palatial city in the entire 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, then abandoned just decades later and never reoccupied. Colonnaded streets dividing the city into four quarters, a grand palace with over 40 towers, a mosque and bathhouses — all still standing in the middle of the Bekaa plain. Your guide brings the full story of this extraordinary and overlooked city to life in a way that makes you wonder why it is not on every Lebanon itinerary.

Stone of the Pregnant Woman — the warm-up act Before the temples, your guide takes you to the ancient Roman quarry where the Stone of the Pregnant Woman — 21 metres long, 1,000 tonnes, never moved — still lies exactly where it was abandoned 2,000 years ago. Your guide explains the engineering mystery behind it — and why standing next to this unfinished block makes everything you are about to see at the temple complex even more jaw-dropping.

Baalbek Temple Complex — your guide earns their keep here Enter the greatest Roman temple complex on earth — and this is where having a guide makes all the difference. The Temple of Jupiter on Trilithon stones each weighing over 800 tonnes. The Temple of Bacchus — larger than the Parthenon, almost entirely intact — with a carved doorway your guide explains in detail that changes how you see the whole building. The Temple of Venus completing a complex that has outlasted every empire that touched it. Without a guide, Baalbek is overwhelming in a good way. With a guide, it becomes one of the most meaningful experiences in Lebanon.

Lunch in Baalbek — optional Local Bekaa Valley mezze and grilled meats in a town that has been feeding travellers for two thousand years. Optional — but after Anjar and Baalbek back to back, you will be hungry and this is a good place to eat.

Chateau Ksara — Roman caves and Lebanese wine End the day underground — in the best possible way. Chateau Ksara is Lebanon's oldest winery, founded by Jesuit monks in 1857, and the star attraction is 2 kilometres of Roman cave cellars beneath the winery where wine ages at a naturally constant temperature year-round. Your guide walks you through the ancient tunnels — carved by Romans, discovered by Jesuits, now filled with thousands of quietly ageing bottles — before a tasting of Ksara's iconic Cabernet-Syrah blends, crisp Blanc de Blancs, and famous Sunset Rosé. A day that started at a 1,300-year-old ghost city, peaked at the world's greatest Roman temples, and ended in ancient wine caves. The Bekaa really delivers.