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Cedars of God

The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ Arz ar-Rabb "Cedars of the Lord"), located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon, are one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that thrived across Mount Lebanon in antiquity. All early modern travelers' accounts of the wild cedars appear to refer to the ones in Bsharri;[1] the Christian monks of the monasteries in the Kadisha Valley venerated the trees for centuries. The earliest documented references of the Cedars of God are found in Tablets 4-6 of the great Epic of Gilgamesh, six days walk from Uruk.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Bsharri, North Governorate, Lebanon

Wadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab) Bsharri

Cultural: (iii)(iv)

850-002

1998 (22nd Session)

10.2 ha (25 acres)

646 ha (1,600 acres)

34°14′42″N 36°02′53″E / 34.24500°N 36.04806°E / 34.24500; 36.04806

The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks used Lebanese timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding, and in the Ottoman Empire their timber was used to construct railways.[2]

World Heritage Site[edit]

In 1998, the Cedars of God were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.[18]

"Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down." (Zechariah 11:1, 2)

[25]

"He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit." (Job 40:17)

"The priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer" (Numbers 19:6)

"The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon" (Psalm 29:5)

"The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon" (Psalm 92:12)

"I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive" (Isaiah 41: 19)

"Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade" (Ezekiel 31:3)

"I destroyed the before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars" (Amos 2:9)

Amorite

"The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted." (Psalm 104:16 NRSV)

[King Solomon made] cedar as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. (1 Kings 10:27, NIV, excerpt)

The Cedar Forest of ancient Mesopotamian religion appears in several sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh. [21]


The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned 103 times in the Bible.[22][23][24] In the Hebrew text it is named ארז and in the Greek text (LXX) it is named κέδρου. Example verses include:

Garden of the Gods

Al Shouf Cedar Nature Reserve

List of individual trees

(2001). "The Bsharré Cedars of Lebanon as seen by Travellers" (PDF). Archaeology & History in Lebanon (14): 96–105.

Hepper, F. Nigel

Aiello, Anthony S., and Michael S. Dosmann. " Archived 2023-03-29 at the Wayback Machine." Arnoldia: The magazine of the Arnold Arboretum 65.1 (2007): 26–35.

The quest for the Hardy Cedar-of-lebanon

Anderson, Mary Perle. “The Cedar of Lebanon.” Torreya, vol. 8, no. 12, 1908, pp. 287–292. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40594656.

Lebanon eco-tourism: Cedars of God