- HERITAGE & HISTORY
- ethnographic museum
Jahlieh, Chouf district
Cave of Art (Kahf el Founoun in Arabic) is a unique museum in the heart of the Lebanese village of Jahlieh. Housed in Ottoman-era cellars, the museum aims to preserve the village’s cultural heritage. For over 25 years, Ghandi Bou Diab has been collecting everything that is relevant to the Lebanese and Druze heritage in particular. The collectibles from the village people’s heritage include mosaics, mud brick walls and roofs made of old rugs and brooms. Also on display are oil paintings that tell nostalgic stories, painted by Bou Diab himself and other artists, which remind visitors of Lebanon’s beautiful history.
The cellars were used in the Ottoman-era as chambers for secret meetings. During the Lebanese Civil War [1975-1990], they were turned into bunkers where villagers would hide from the shelling. After the end of the war, Bou Diab immediately started to turn these cellars into a touristic cultural and heritage museum. The cellars are divided into three sections: the first holds paintings and tools, particularly of Druze heritage, the second specializes in farming and plowing tools and the basis of an ancient house, and the third is called “Beit Sitti” or “My Grandmother’s House”, which contains another old house.
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Opening hours
Booking only