YOUR AUTUMN DESTINATIONS
With a 50-year histor y, Jounieh’s teleferique continues its journey up and down the Harissa heights – remaining an important Lebanese landmark. LT meets Joe Boulos, whose family was responsible for its heritage
It’s become a landmark for many people in the Middle East
“The joke going around at the time was that Boulos is crazy. There’s a guy who wants to create an aer ial train over the mountain,” laughs Joe Boulos as he recounts the anecdote when his late father, Fouad Boulos proposed the idea of a telefer ique to Fouad Chehab, the Lebanese President of the time. “The President could not understand what a telefer ique was, and in fact there was no-one in the Middle East who could. The closest descr iption my father could give was of a train in the air.” Sitting in his office, at the base of the telefer ique in Jounieh, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversar y, Joe Boulos was eight years old when he took one of its first r ides. He now stands as chairman of the board of directors of the telefer ique company, presiding over what’s become one of the countr y’s most cher ished icons. His office walls are lined with framed black and white photographs; some of which show the telefer ique’s construction back in 1964 in an altogether greener Jounieh. Founded by the Boulos family, along with a small group of investors, of which Joe’s father, Fouad was chairman; the ambitious telefer ique project was the result of a dream to make the Lebanese pilgr image site more accessible. The white statue of Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady of Lebanon, which stands on the peak of Harissa, remains one of Lebanon’s most visited tour ist sites. “My father was inspired by postcards he had seen from Switzerland and the Alps,” Joe says. “They struck a deal with the German company, PHB, the inventors of the cable car concept worldwide. It took a couple of years to construct and opened to the public in 1965. It’s since become a landmark for many people in the Middle East.” The stor y of Fouad himself is one connected to the ver y idea of Lebanese identity. Coming from what Joe says were “extremely modest or igins,” he dropped out of school and worked to the top by himself. “He’s a totally self-made man, with limited education. He learned from life exper ience and worked his way up the ladder to become one of the leading figures of Lebanese entrepreneurship,” recounts Joe. For many, there’s nostalgia attached to the telefer ique; its distinct 60s-style br ightly colored pods associated with the golden age of Lebanon. “It reflects the genius of some entrepreneurs who go ahead and do things that are beyond the regular scale. To have a small countr y
like Lebanon leading the whole region with a project like this is a feat,” says Joe. The only cable car in the Middle East at the time, the telefer ique, has attracted numerous T V and film crews over the years. Traveling high above luscious green forests, with a view over the bay of Jounieh and turquoise blue seas, it became the setting of many iconic romance productions from Egypt and Lebanon featur ing legendar y Arab film st ars. It’s an impor t ant par t of the region’s her it age. “Many people still go up the telefer ique with nostalgia,” Joe says. “It has a lot of movies associated with it. When things are unique and beautiful they are the per fect setting for love stor ies.” The telefer ique continues to attract close to 400,000 visitors per year and though the destination is an impor t ant Chr istian pilgr image site, Joe notes that around two thirds of its tour ists are non-chr istian; “It ’s a place for ever ybody,” he says. In its 50-year histor y, the telefer ique has rarely come to a stop. It continued to run throughout Lebanon’s long civil war, only stopping br ief ly dur ing its worst moments. “It has a lifetime of memor ies – the telefer ique keeps going up and down, day in, day out, war or no war,” Joe says. “It’s always been there, it ’s a witness to Lebanon’s histor y over the past f ive decades. It witnessed the beautiful golden age of Lebanon, it witnessed the destruction of Beirut and its reconstruction and it is now witnessing the resilience of Lebanon.” Though the teleferique has suf fered in recent years with a decline in the number of visitors to the countr y, it has shown its own resilience. They have managed to stabilize and even increase the number of tourists over the last few years, which Joe puts down to small improvements they’ve made – creating a food court with a view over the bay that of fers Lebanese cuisine and fast food snacks and a landscaped promenade that of fers a scenic walk through the woods. Though the teleferique has reached 50 years of existence, there are no big plans for celebration. “We don’t want to make a big splash. We believe that we should remain a stable landmark with a relatively modest outlook,” Joe says. “It worked for us for 50 years, and its unlikely that it is going to change anytime soon.”