Tourism crisis threatensLebanon\'s Jeita Grotto

Lebanon\'s Jeita Grotto The head of Mabas Lebanese tourism company, and the operator of Lebanon\'s \"Jeita Grotto\" tourism site, Nabil Hadad has said tourism in the site has been badly affected due to a variety of reasons. \"The situation in the grotto this year is very bad due to a massive decline in tourism due o the unstable political and security situation in Lebanon, not enough attention from the tourism ministry and the municipality of Jeita in dealing with changing requirements for tourism services and the upkeep of the Grotto facilities,\" he said.
Hadad said to Arabstoday during an inspection visit: \"After former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in 2005, tourism severely declined...there was also the July wat and Nahr el-Bared conflict..plus today\'s crisis in Syria has all negatively impacted Lebanese tourism.\"
Jeita Grotto can be considered the essence of Lebanese tourism, with mysterious, ancient rocks forming its coral and narrow cavities between lobbies, halls, and structures carved by nature.
Across the time limestone water leaked in forming forming domes and sculptures whose beauty cannot be described in words.
The grotto is located in Nahr el-Kalb about 20km from north Beirut and consists of two levels: the lower part where water accumulates forms a pure swamp between tunnels made of limestone rocks, as discovered in the 1830s by an American missionary, William Thomson.
He ventured about 50m inside it after shooting from his hunting gun and discovered from the echo that it was an extended grotto.
The upper level was opened in 1969 after it was discovered in 1958 when the Lebanese artist and engineer Ghassan Click found it in a festival inside the grotto,  playing electronic music prepared by the French musician François Basil for the occasion.
The stages of discovering the Jeita Grotto witnessed a radical change starting from the 1940s and until today new generations of Lebanese excavators, prominent among them an excavators\' club founded in 1951 by Lebanese excavator Lionel Ghara, study the site, extending it by 9km today.
Visiting the lower part of the grotto is limited to 600m from 6910m that is known to exist. Visitors of the lower parts move in small boats in a winding water stream, breaking the silence along with the sound of underground water, while passing by natural columns that were formed millions of years ago. The grotto entrance is the biggest in the Middle East, with the pattern standing at  660m and 75 tonnes.
The investment company, the ministry of tourism, and some cultural and social groups had tried to make the natural wonder one of the seven Wonders of the World, but Lebanon was deprived of the blessing.
Hadad said, replying to the grotto administration\'s critics: \"I challenge any investor who can come and invest his money in Jeita Grotto with the conditions and terms imposed on the Mabas company...despite the Lebanese state having a fixed share in entry tariffs, it hasn\'t borne any extra costs in reconstruction especially after the war...when the contract ends, the government will retain full ownership.\"