Coming from one of the great Lebanese families who gave, to what would become Lebanon, several of its leaders, the Emir Maurice Chéhab will make himself known throughout his existence for his service to the nation, a model of probity and dedication as we don’t know much today.
Born on December 27, 1904 in Homs, where his doctor father was then in service, Maurice Chéhab returned to Lebanon in 1920 where he joined the Jesuit college in Beirut. Holder of a French baccalaureate in 1924, he joined the Sorbonne until 1928 then the practical schools of Hautes Etudes, the Catholic Institute and the Louvre. On his return, he was appointed curator of the newly created National Museum, then in 1942, he was appointed Director General of the DGA from 1962 to 1982.
During his tenure at the head of this institution, Maurice Chéhab will first continue with the major companies started by Maurice Dunand, during the French Mandate with the excavations of Byblos and Baalbeck, and which will remain in the Land of the Cedars until the beginning of civil war. During his 40-year career at these 2 sites, he will add excavations in most Lebanese regions, notably in Saïda, in the Bekaa or even in Tire, which he will take care of personally. It will decide on the restoration of various sites including the Beiteddine Palace, the exceptional one in the Umayyad city of Aanjar, as well as critical interventions to safeguard the Nahr Kalb stelae threatened by the breaking through of the Jounieh highway in Beirut.
On the eve of the 1975 civil war, the Emir Maurice Chéhab would take the decisions that were sometimes necessary at the risk of his own life to save the collections of the National Museum then located on the demarcation line. We will remember in particular the concrete structure covering the priceless sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos or the fact of having walled up many artefacts in the basements of this establishment. It is thus thanks to his actions that the collections of the National Museum will escape looting and destruction.
Fortunately, Emir Maurice Chéhab, who died in 1994, was not confronted with the almost systematic destruction of what was then considered to be one of the largest archaeological sites in the world, namely Downtown Beirut. He thus claimed, knowingly, that various sites in this city center had to be nationalized, in particular the Beirut Roman Hippodrome, which he suspected existed. Unfortunately, these places were sacrificed on the altar of “a few financiers” and their institutions which were to be public but which turned out to be private …
