Labweh

The Neolithic settlements at Labweh have been dated to at least the 7th millennium BC. It has been suggested that it was known to the Egyptians as Lab'u, to the Assyrians as Laba'u and as Lebo-hamath to the Hebrews. This has been associated with the "entrance of Hamath" mentioned in the Books of Kings and the Book of Ezekiel, noted as the Northern border of King Solomon's territory, but subsequently lost to the Syrians. Jeroboam II, king of Israel, is said to have "restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea)". Labweh in the original Syriac tongue means "heart" or "center", it also has been suggested to come from the Arabic for "lion" or "lioness". The village has several archaeological sites of interest including three old caves with Roman-Byzantine sarcophagi and the remains of a temple. There are also remains of a Byzantine bastion and a Roman dam suggested to date to the reign of Queen Zenobia. Legend suggests that channels were carved through the rock to send water to her lands in Palmyra, Syria. In 1834, Burckhardt Barker noted: "I came to a village called Labweh, after having passed an encampment of Turkomans to the right of the road, at a place called Shaad. Labweh is at the foot of the range of Anti-Libanus on the top of a hillock, near which passes a small stream which has its source in the adjoining mountains, and after flowing for several hours through the plain, falls into the basin from which springs the Orontes." In 1838, Eli Smith noted Lebweh as a Metawileh village in the Baalbek District. ==Labweh Springs and Labweh River==

The village is located on a hill northeast of Baalbek, which gives its name to the Labweh Springs and Labweh River, one of the sources of the Orontes River. ==Archaeological sites==

Soundings and analysis of archaeological sites in Labweh were made by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe in 1966 with later excavations by Diana Kirkbride in 1969. Tell Labweh, Tell Labweh South or Labweh I sits to the south of the village with another site to the north. The surface of Tell Labweh had been damaged by modern agriculture and it had been cut in half by road construction. Several burials were discovered inside the remains of rectangular buildings with white and red plaster floors. The remains of stone walls were found at lower levels and it is thought that the buildings may have used mud bricks at higher levels. The range of finds at the site has however helped to reveal some aspects of the transition through neolithic stages. Tell Labweh North is another large archaeological site, a few hundred meters north on the other side of the village and springs. Finely denticulated sickle blades, arrowheads and trapezoidal, flaked axes and fragments of whiteware along with burnished pottery with patterns and a fragment of obsidian were collected from the surface of the site. Most of the finds indicated settlement around the time of Tell Labweh (South) and Byblos. ==Roman temple==

There are the ruins of a Roman temple in the village that are included in a group of Temples of the Beqaa Valley. It was a prostyle type but only one block of the western wall remained visible. Modern construction built a house inside the temple. There are around twenty temples located between Labweh and Ain el-Baid. ==References==

• • Copeland, Lorraine and Westcombe, Peter, Inventory of Stone Age Sites in Lebanon Part 2: North - South - East Central Lebanon Volume 42 (Pages 1–174) Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (Beirut Lebanon), 1966. • Kirkbride, Diana, Early Byblos and the Bakaa, Volume 45 (Pages 43–60), Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (Beirut Lebanon), 1969. • ==External links==