Saghbine

Saghbine sits on the western ridge above Lake Qaraoun, high enough that the drive up from the lakeshore road switches back on itself several times through terraced cherry orchards before the village proper comes into view. I’d been told by someone in Zahle that this was the spot for the definitive view over the reservoir, and after trying two other villages on the same ridge that made more modest claims, I can confirm the recommendation was not exaggerated. From the edge of Saghbine, the entire elongated shape of the lake lays itself out below, the Litani River’s dammed water catching the sky’s color and the terraced hills falling away toward it in a way that made me stop the car twice just to look.

The village itself makes its living from cherries, and if you time a visit for late May or June, roadside stands sell them by the kilo straight from that morning’s picking, deep red and still warm from the sun. I bought a bag from a woman who ran her stand from a folding table beside her house and ate most of it sitting on a low wall looking down at the lake, which felt like about as good a way to spend an hour as the Bekaa offers. She told me the orchards had belonged to her husband’s family for three generations and that cherries from this particular slope, cooler than the valley floor because of the altitude, ripened almost two weeks later than orchards down near the lakeshore.

Saghbine is small enough that you can walk its lanes in twenty minutes, stone houses with the kind of deep porches built for sitting out summer evenings, and a village church whose bell I heard ringing for an evening service as I made my way back to the car. Nobody I met seemed remotely surprised to see a foreigner wandering around, which after a few weeks in Lebanon I’d come to recognize as the local version of a warm welcome.

When to go: Late May through June for cherry season and the fullest orchards, though the lake view alone justifies a visit at any time of year. Go in late afternoon for the best light over the water.