They say you can take the Lebanese out of Lebanon, but you can’t take Lebanon out of the Lebanese. Well it turns out that, if you’re in the US, there’s a real reason for that. And it’s because Lebanon is…actually all around.
“For some reason, America has so many cities and towns called Lebanon,” the Lebanese photographer writes on his newly launched blog.
“I found out about this by accident one time when I was googling Lebanon (my country), and I got a link to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, which got me wondering. Then I started scouring the online databases the U.S. has of its city names, and I found over 50.”
So, he decided to embark on a journey and discover each of these places.
BouKaram launched Instagram and Facebook pages in addition to his blog, and will be sharing regular posts documenting his journey across the U.S. His trip began in Seattle, Washington, one the west coast of the U.S., where he picked up the RV he will be using to make the epic journey.
“Sometimes names of cities change in the U.S., or they lose their populations, so of the 50 plus I found, there’s about 43 still standing today,” he said in the blog post.
Perhaps even more intriguing are the connections BouKaram found between several of these American Lebanons and his home country.
“The mayors of seven of these towns … were invited by president Camille Chamoun in March 1955 to come visit the real Lebanon. They did, spending two weeks in Beirut and touring the country, and then when they left, they were each given a cedar sapling … that they took to their towns and supposedly planted there,” he said.
“I want to find out if these trees still exist today.”
In a video, BouKaram talks about his planned trip, his motivation and what followers can expect from his upcoming posts. He will also be blogging about the journey for Lebanon’s L’Orient-Le-Jour newspaper.
While BouKaram only plans on visiting the Lebanons scattered throughout America, there are many other Arab countries and cities that share names with ones in the U.S.
