The Baatara Gorge Waterfall, Lebanon

Baatara Gorge Waterfall is located in the village of Balaa, between the cities of Laqlouq and Tannourine, Lebanon. The location is also known as the “Three Bridges Chasm”.

Coordinates 34°10.406′N 35°52.222′E

The waterfall, which is fed by meltwater from Mount Lebanon, falls 250 meters into the chasm’s depths past 160-million-year-old limestone from the Jurassic period. Experiments carried out with flourescent dye in 1988 indicated that the water from the chasm emerges from underground at a spring in the nearby town of Mgharet al-Ghaouaghir.

The area is very popular for sport activities and you can find lots of people with climbing gear on the surrounding hills.

Signs at the cave discourage visitors from standing on the bridges or coming to close to the edge – the edges are slippery, and the bridges may collapse under the weight of too many visitors.

Traveling from Laklouk to Tannourine one passes the village of Balaa, and the Three Bridges Chasm (in French Gouffre des Trois Ponts) is a five-minute journey into the valley below where one sees three natural bridges, rising one above the other and overhanging a chasm descending into Mount Lebanon. During the spring melt, a 90–100-metre (300–330 ft) cascade falls behind the three bridges and then down into the 240-metre (790 ft) chasm.