Obscure Beirut

So turns out that there is are a few ancient enormous sewage pipes that run through Beirut, from its city center all the way to Manara, or somewhere close to the "Long Beach", "Sporting Club" and Nejmeh club’s stadium. The pipes I am told date back to the Ottoman period, and appear to be in good condition, though it is hard to understand why is it that they would have them extend all the way to Manara when this area was not really inhabited at the time. If you manage to find the entrance next to that small house between Sporting Club and Long Beach, you could actually walk through the pipes, of course if you can handle the humidity and cockroaches as well as other creatures that call the place home.

You could also save yourself the hassle of jumping through fences or diving from Sporting’s beach, and wait a few weeks, when these same pipes will be one of three locations in which live art performances will take place from 19 -21 August. The performances will be the result of a series of participatory workshops, for which Zoukak Theatre Company is collaborating with Lotos Collective, and working will local artists within the Triangulated City project.

Back to the pipes, I can’t but wonder how is that I’ve never heard of these before. All sort of weird ideas occur to me.. do they extend all the way to Ein El-Mreisseh, to the location where President Hariri was killed? Why has no one mentioned these during the investigations? And Rabih Jaber’s novel about an underground city in Beirut, where "other" Beirutis live; could that be based on a true story and not the work of his imagination?

Anybody else heard of the pipes?