I've always been interested in the Paranormal. Since I was a child, everything strange caught my attention and fascinated me. Whether it was fantastic religious stories from Islam or Christianity or movies about witchcraft (Twitches to name an example) or a masked villain killing helpless victim after helpless victim with a big knife (Scream), I loved it all.
I grew up and despite no longer believing in ghosts or demons or the paranormal in general, I am still fascinated by it. I'm addicted to Buzzfeed Unsolved, I've watched all of Shane Dawson's creepy videos and I decided that I wanted to visit "Haunted" locations myself because it seemed like so much fun and because an escape from the incredible boredom of everyday life has always been appealing to me. So for a couple of hours I could forget my skepticism and actually bask in the slight chance that the paranormal was real. What could be the harm? A little excitement sounded very welcome.
So I set out to find a location I could visit. A place that was believed to be haunted. I was disappointed to find that despite how superstitious the Lebanese society is, I could find very little about abandoned locations, and even less about haunted ones. I found one and only one place that was said to be haunted: Hotel Amrieh in Bikfaya.
People said they hear strange noises coming from floors to which the stairs were blocked. Some have said the experience of visiting this place terrified them.
The first thing I did was look up the history of Hotel Amrieh. There wasn't a whole lot of information about it but what I did find was kind of creepy.
The Hotel was built by a famous fireworks merchant named Kaysar Amer. It was a prestigious establishment that had it's own theater and it's own resort. The hotel was abandoned, like many other beautiful buildings, during the Lebanese Civil War. Kaysar Amer's son, Amer Amer, was rumored to have been a part of a secret international organization and to have been the leader of it's Lebanese branch. I believe I read somewhere that someone had caused fires within the hotel after it was abandoned to get rid of certain documents that were stored there. I have no clue what those documents were but maybe they were something that incriminated Amer Amer.
Additionally, Kaysar Amer, despite owning a family cemetery, asked to be buried near the church that he built facing Hotel Amrieh. This is very strange and makes the rumors about the hotel being haunted that much creepier.
Me and a friend decided it would be fun to visit this hotel. So one Saturday morning we took a bus to Bikfaya and came face to face with this infamous former hotspot.
The place was in a pretty bad shape but the first really creepy thing we saw in there, was the graffiti. Vandalism is to be expected in a place like this. But this was just scary.
The second creepy thing we encountered, which was infinitely scarier than spray painted words, was a little ... maybe it was a tiny room with one of the walls knocked down? I don't know what it was I just know there was this sort of hidden place within the hotel that was covered in candles from bottom to top. It occurred to me that maybe satanists or some other cult performed rituals there. And a few weeks after the visit I actually found someone online (I think on reddit) who said that satanists actually do go there.
Other than that nothing strange or scary happened. We didn't hear noises, we didn't see ghosts and we didn't feel the presence of any sort of ominous spirit. The atmosphere was really creepy and it was so much fun but I don't think this place is actually haunted. It's definitely worth exploring though.
Watch an exploration of Hotel Amrieh:
Sources:
Haunted/Abandoned Hotel in Bikfaya
https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comm...
In Pictures: Abandoned Amriyeh Hotel
http://blogbaladi.com/in-pictures-aba...
What are the creepiest/most haunted buildings or places in Beirut?
https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comm...
The Lebanese haunted Hotel that’ll scare you to your very core
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com...
4 abandoned Lebanese hotels and their stories
https://stepfeed.com/4-abandoned-leba...
ما تبقى من فندق العامرية: قصة قيصر
https://www.almodon.com/society/2017/...
اوتيل العامرية في بكفيا … جمال ومناظر خلّابة
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