4 abandoned Lebanese hotels and their stories

From bullet scarred apartment complexes to gutted building in Beirut's downtown area, reconstruction hasn't entirely wiped away the scars of the 15 year conflict. 

Each building has its own story, but here's a glimpse at 4 of Lebanon's once grand hotels that now stand empty and abandoned.

Situated near to the main highway linking Beirut to Damascus, the Grand Aley Hotel was built in 1926 by three Lebanese brothers. They hired an Italian architect to design the structure.

During World War II, the British army occupied the hotel and transformed it into a headquarters. After the war, the hotel became a popular spot for evening entertainment complete with concerts, dancing and gambling. The lawn was even transformed to hold a pool featuring rowing boats at one point in time.

Various mercenary groups took over the hotel during Lebanon's civil war, forcing the owners to sell for a fraction of the hotel's worth. Following the war, the original owners didn't have enough money to refurbish the once grand social hotspot. It briefly served as a school, but inevitably has fallen into abandoned disrepair without any plans for refurbishment.

The building's grand facade and decaying interior serve as a reminder of a time gone, fading into an almost forgotten past.

This is definitely one of Beirut's most iconic landmarks and also an infamous relic of the civil war. It's all to routine to meet service taxi drivers with stories about their time with this or that militia occupying or attacking the hotel during the war.

Built between 1971 and 1974, the hotel was briefly a hotspot for foreign tourists and the local elite. It featured a rotating top floor restaurant with views of the mediterranean, making it THE place to impress a date.

But, with the outbreak of the war, the building got caught up in the carnage. Militias from numerous groups occupied and fought in the hotel throughout the war. The hotel was an integral part of the Battle of the Hotels, during which rival militias fought to control several different high rise buildings in the downtown area of Beirut.

Today, the hotel remains an abandoned concrete skeleton. With ownership split between a Lebanese and a Kuwaiti company, it's unclear whether the building will ever be demolished or renovated. 

Once a touristic hot spot, Hotel Amrieh is located in Ain Alaq, near to Bikfaya in Mount Lebanon.

Perched on the mountainside with a breathtaking view of Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea displayed below, the hotel was once a grand resort with its own theater and cinema. Now, its gutted shell – rumored to be haunted – is great for exploring and for watching the sunset.

The prolific Palestinian academic Edward Said once wrote about vacationing with his well-to-do family in Lebanon's Dhour El Choueir mountain village in the 1940s.

"I vividly recall that Dhour's landscape was dominated by the Grand Hotel Kassouf, a fortress-like structure near the end of the single winding road built by the French along the spine of two mountains, 5,000 feet straight up and slightly to the north of the capital," he wrote. He referred to the hotel as a "great social pinnacle."

But, like the other once grand hotels, Kassouf fell into disrepair during the long years of Lebanon's civil war. It remains, along with the numerous others, as a relic from a different era.