The Cedars of God is one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of
the Lebanon Cedar, Cedrus libani , that once thrived across Mount Lebanon in
ancient times. Their timber was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians,
Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Israelites and Turks. The wood was
prized by Egyptians for shipbuilding; the Ottoman Empire used the cedars in
railway construction.
The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests and the tree
is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the
extent of these forests has been markedly reduced.
It was once said that a battle occurred between the demigods and the humans
over the beautiful and divine forest of Cedar trees near southern Mesopotamia.
This forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was completely bared of
its trees when humans entered its grounds 4700 years ago, after winning the
battle against the guardians of the forest, the demigods.The story also tells
that Gilgamesh used cedar wood to build his city.
Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians,
Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Israelites and Turks. The
Phoenicians used the Cedars for their merchant fleets. They needed timbers for
their ships and the Cedar woods made them the “first sea trading nation in the
world”.The Egyptians used cedar resin for the mummification process and the
cedar wood for some of “their first hieroglyph bearing rolls of papyrus”. In
the Bible, Solomon procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The
emperor Hadrian claimed these forests as an imperial domain, and destruction
of the cedar forests was temporarily halted.
Concern for the biblical “cedars of God” goes back to 1876, when the
102-hectare (250-acre) grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by
Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats. Nevertheless,
during World War I, British troops used cedar to build railroads.
Time, along with the exploitation of the Cedars’ wood, has led to a decrease
in the number of cedar trees in Lebanon. However, Lebanon is still widely
known for its cedar tree history, as they are the emblem of the country and
the symbol of the Lebanese flag. The remaining trees survive in mountainous
areas, where they are the dominant tree species. This is the case on the
slopes of Mount Makmel that tower over the Kadisha Valley, where the Cedars of
God are found at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Four trees
have reached a height of 35 metres (115 ft), with their trunks reaching 12–14
metres (39–46 ft).
