ABSTRACT
The Akpinar monument presents us with a rich landscape of memory, histories and mythologies that closely engage with the geology, topography and carved ruins of the place. At archaeological places, or rather let's say places in general, the vestiges of the past are re-activated through the performance of memory, the performance of the re-inscription of the place, which, according to Olivier, translates them to the present. As a fully embodied form of engagement with place, place-based healing is the practice of seeking well-being and improvement of health through pilgrimage to therapeutic landscapes. In the case of post-civil war reconstruction of downtown Beirut, archaeologists missed an opportunity to critique and stand against the government backed company Solidere, which introduced an urban reconstruction plan that physically erased urban places and landscapes of collective memory and cultural belonging.
