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The commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb are a group of over 20 inscriptions and rock reliefs carved into the limestone rocks around the estuary of the Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River) in Lebanon, just north of Beirut. The inscriptions include three Egyptian hieroglyphic stelae from Pharaohs including Ramesses II, six Cuneiform inscriptions from Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian kings including Esarhaddon and Nebuchadnezzar II, Roman and Greek inscriptions, Arabic inscriptions from the Mamluk sultan Barquq〔(Britannica Al Kalb River )〕 and the Druze prince Fakhr-al-Din II,〔 a memorial to Napoleon III's 1860 intervention in Lebanon〔(Commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb at Livius.org )〕 and a dedication to the 1943 independence of Lebanon from France.〔 As such, the site has been said to summarise all of Lebanon's history in one place.〔UNESCO Memory of the World application〕 The earliest European to identify the site was the 17th century traveller Henry Maundrell in 1697, and Franz Heinrich Weissbach was the first editor of the inscriptions in 1922. In 2005, the stelae at the river were listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World initiative.〔 ==Description== Past generals and conquerors have traditionally built monuments at the mouth of the Nahr al-Kalb. Ramses II, Nebuchadnezzar, Esarhaddon, Caracalla, and even armies from modern-day France and Great Britain have engaged in this practice.〔〔Fisk, Robert. ''Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon''. New York: Nation Books, 2001, pp. 52–53.〕 The inscriptions are carved on a strategic location commanding the North-South coastal road along the Eastern Mediterranean. The earliest inscription is that of Ramesses II, and relates to the New Kingdom of Egypt's control of the region. The earliest Egyptian incursions into the region were many centuries earlier, as recorded by the Autobiography of Weni (c. 2280 BC)〔"Inscription of Uni" in Ancient Records of Egypt by James Henry Breasted, 1906, Part One, sections 291-294, 306-315, 319-324〕 and the Sebek-khu Stele (c. 1860 BC).〔(The stela of Sebek-khu, the earliest record of an Egyptian campaign in Asia (1914) )〕 The earliest European to identify the site was the 17th century traveller Henry Maundrell in 1697, who wrote of the river crossing: To accommodate the passage, you have a path of above two yards breadth cut along its side, at a great height above the water; being the work of the emperor Antoninus... The memory of which good work is perpetuated by an inscription, engraven on a table plained in the side of the natural rock, not far from the entrance into the way... In passing this way, we observed, in the sides of the rock above us, several tables of figures carved; which seemed to promise something of antiquity... as if the old way had gone in that region, before Antoninus cut the other more convenient passage a little lower. In several places hereabouts, we saw strange antique figures of men, carved in the natural rock, and in bigness equal to the life. Close by each figure was a large table, plained in the side of the rock, and bordered round with mouldings. Both the effigies and the tables appeared to have been anciently inscribed all over: but the characters are now so defaced, that nothing but the footsteps of them were visible; only there was one of the figures that had both its lineaments and its inscriptions entire. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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