Hidden passages of Gemmayze

byHabib Battah
Apr 22, 2014

I recently stumbled upon a passageway between 19th century homes in Gemmayze. It is only accessible by foot:

There are jagged paths and stairwells leading to the houses above and below:

Were these footpaths once common in other parts of the city?

One great thing about Beirut is no matter how many years you’ve lived here, there are always new places to discover.

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.