---

Official website for the Garden of Forgiveness (Hadiqat as Samah), Beirut:

http://www.solidere.com/garden/

Read about how the Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut was born:

http://www.gofnyc.org/articles/HowTheGardenOfForgivenessProjectWasBorn.pdf

Recent news from the Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut (April 2008):

http://gofnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/prayer-in-garden-of-forgiveness-hadiqat.html

"In Beirut there is a Garden of Forgiveness", an article by Michael Henderson, author of "Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate":

http://www.spiritrestoration.org/Church/All%20About%20Church%20Articles/Michael%20Henderson/In_Beirut_there_is_a_Garden_of_Forgiveness.htm

Article mentioning Beirut's Garden of Forgiveness, with quotation from its founder Alexandra Asseily from the documentary "The Power of Forgiveness":

http://halife.com/living/inside_people0428.html

"In Beirut, the Show Pauses, then Goes On":

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/070131beirut.asp

Beirut's Forgiveness Garden, Slated for 2008, on Wartime Hold

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=culture&sid=avtxiuhusuVs

Alexandra Asseily's piece on the November 2005 journey to Beirut, "A journey of discovery, understanding, and healing":

http://www.gofnyc.org/articles/AJourneyOfDiscovery.pdf

The Reverend Lyndon Harris' "Beirut Diary" from November 2005:

http://www.gofnyc.org/articles/BeirutDiary.pdf

Hadiqat as Samah, Beirut (from the Gustafson Porter website)

http://www.gustafson-porter.com/intro.htm:

The 'Garden of Forgiveness' is the winning entry of an international design competition held in March 2000. The Garden is envisaged as a symbol for unity following the divisions and destruction of the civil war. The aim is to emphasise the common ties of a people. A sense of collective identity forged from an image of a shared landscape.

Our proposal makes reference to history, as well as timeless and contemporary symbols of Lebanon. Throughout the garden the archaeological remains of five successive civilisations are both revealed and re-interpreted in a new context. A sense of timelessness is imparted by using symbolical elements of the Lebanese landscape, while the contemporary interpretation of landscape centres on the creation of communal symbols. Overall the garden is in the tradition of the paradise garden, calm and uplifting, a place for both solitary reflection and communal togetherness, a symbolic focal point for change and healing.