Tibnin is a castle on a hill in south Lebanon, and the story it tells is one of rival crowns trading the same piece of ground. The Crusaders built it in the early twelfth century, around 1105, under Hugh of St Omer, and called it Toron. It sat between the coast at Tyre and the road to Damascus, and from its walls a garrison could see raiders coming a long way off. Saladin took it in 1187, and the fortress changed hands and shape for centuries afterwards, ending up a half-ruined hill crowned with pale stone, with a village of the same name spread around it.
The country around is green hill country, quite unlike the dry image many people have of Lebanon. Terraces of olive trees, tobacco fields, oaks and wild thyme roll away in every direction, with stone villages on the ridges, and on a clear day you can pick out the pale line of the sea and the dark shoulder of the Galilee hills across the border. Ain Ebel, a Christian village a short way south, is quiet and sleepy, and the road beyond runs toward the frontier.
That frontier matters. South Lebanon has seen repeated conflict, and the security situation changes from month to month, with checkpoints, closed roads and in some periods no safe access at all. Fuel and cash are best sorted in the larger towns, Nabatieh and Tyre among them, and the supply of petrol in Lebanon has been unreliable in recent years, so carry a margin and do not assume a village pump will be open.
When conditions allow, this is a very good ride. The roads are twisty and often narrow, with tight bends between walls, poor patches, loose gravel and the odd cow, and drivers are fast and relaxed about lanes. Go in spring, when the hills are bright with wildflowers and anemones, or in autumn after the heat. Summer afternoons are hot and hazy, and winter brings rain and fog to the higher slopes. Take a coffee from the village shops, and talk to people, because south Lebanon is generous with hospitality to anyone who arrives with respect.