Let’s get lost together in Burj Hamoud … a city that has a lot to be discovered, experienced and enjoyed… A city mapped with small streets and on every street you’ll find a series of small shops… enter each shop and find someone working with their hands to make something original – from handcrafts, to food, jewelry… There’s a history in each… Today we head down to Maraash area and discovered the finest food and finest artisans.

A bit of background on Burj Hammud…  A suburb in North-East Beirut, Lebanon in the Metn district and is part of Greater Beirut. The suburb is heavily populated by Armenians. Bourj Hammoud is an industrious area and is one of the most densely populated districts in the Middle East.

Bourj Hammoud was founded by survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and expanded mostly during the 1930s. In 1952, Bourj Hammoud became an independent municipality and is currently a member of the Metn-North group of municipalities.

Most residential buildings and houses in Bourj Hammoud were built from the 1930s to the 1970s. They are usually from two to four stories high. The housing structure looks Balkan, with wooden balconies hanging over the mostly narrow streets of the suburb. Most commercial activity is done at street level. The city is dynamic and industrious. Most streets in Bourj Hammoud are named after Armenian cities such as Yerevan and rivers such as Arax.

Many streets are named after cities in modern-day Armenia and Armenian cities now in Turkey, such as Marash, Sis, Adana, Aragats, Cilicia, Armenia, Yerevan, etc. Many of these city names remind the inhabitants of historic Armenia in general, and Cilicia in particular, where most Lebanese Armenians hail from.

Source: http://www.nogarlicnoonions.com/lets-get-lost-in-bourj-hammoud-a-city-of-life/

Things are still going well in Lebanon. This is the first thought that occurs to anyone who has witnessed this humanitarian gesture that begun weeks ago in Burj Hammoud.

An association named “Saadat al Samaa” which Father “Majdi Allawi” is responsible for, and in collaboration with one of the well-known restaurants in Beirut, opened up a reatsurant under the name “Bonheur du Ciel” which offers free meals to homeless and needy families. Houswives and university students volunteer at the restaurant and serve needy people no matter what their religion or their nationality is so they can taste delicious and healthy meals that they were unable to obtain before this place opened.

Source: Beiruting

via OldBeirut

Bourj Hammoud used to be a huge garden back in the 1920s before thousands of Armenian refugees began arriving in Beirut and settling in refugee camps on the outskirts of the city. What began as a tent camp soon turned into an urban center and later on in the 1950s an independent municipality.

Burj Hammoud is one of the most densely populated cities in the Middle East and has been neglected for years by the authorities. Fifteen years ago, several houses and shops were torn to build a bridge right across the overcrowded city. As a result, hundreds of households are now living in detrimental conditions under the bridge or right next to it.

The below video by Joanne Nochu is a leader for a 90 minute film on “The Narrow Streets of Bourj Hammoud” and has received support from the Wenner Gren Foundation.

Here’s a brief on the project:

This project established a filmmaking workshop for young adults living in Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon. Bourj Hammoud is a diverse, densely populated, working-class suburb of Beirut that is dominated by Armenian social and political institutions. Earlier dissertation research in Bourj Hammoud looked at the ramifications of various urban planning initiatives as well as infrastructures and social service institutions on the formation of sectarian identity. Using videography and photography, the grantee documented how people obtained much-needed services and resources, like education, medical care, electricity and water. The presence of the grantee’s camera elicited great interest among several of interlocutors and enabled unexpected conversations as grantee and interlocutor filmed the urban landscape of Bourj Hammoud together. The engaged anthropology project established a filmmaking workshop with some interlocutors.

Source: Blog Baladi