Beirut City Center Heritage Trail - Segment Four

The Souks site lies on the location of the new Souks of Beirut, a modern development that recreates the historic open space pattern. The project retains in situ some of the finds and integrates them into its design: the Persian-Phoenician site, used as site museum; recovered sections of the medieval city wall and moat; the Mamluk Koranic school Zawiya Ibn Iraq and the Ottoman Majidiya mosque. These include a Phoenician-Persian quarter, Romano-Byzantine finds, part of the medieval moat and the Ottoman wharf. Some remains, mosaics, wall fragments or arcades, will be integrated into the new buildings. The Mamluk Ibn Iraq Zawiya (prayer shrine and Koranic school) will be the object of restoration. The Majidiya mosque is already under restoration, and the Ottoman Khan Antoun Bey caravanserai will be reconstructed as a department store. Other finds include a late Roman house with dining room, internal garden paved with mosaics and an elaborate water and drainage system; a Byzantine portico paved with mosaics with labeled shops; artifacts including Persian-Phoenician storage jars, Mamluk pottery kilns, glass bottles from Roman to Ottoman times.