Stelae of Nahr el-Kalb

Three Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions are known,[1] all of which bear the cartouche of Ramses II. This was first identified by Karl Richard Lepsius.[13] At least one of these is thought to have been placed during the Pharaoh's first campaign in the Levant, and set the Nahr al-Kalb as the border between Egypt's province of Canaan and the possessions of the Hittites. However, the inscription is so weathered that only the name Ramesses II and the date "year 4" can be read.[14]

Scholars such as Edward Robinson connected the Ramses II inscriptions to Sesostris, the Egyptian Pharaoh mentioned by Herodotus,[13] in reference to Herodotus's note that "The pillars which Sesostris of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem."[15]

Nahr al-Kalb inscriptions of Ramesses II and Esarhaddon.[16][17]

Six cuneiform Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian inscriptions are known.[1] The Esarhaddon stele refers to Esarhaddon's seizure of Memphis from Egyptian Pharaoh Taharqa in 671 BC. The passage is badly damaged, but is understood to include reference to the cities of Ashkelon and Tyre, as well as Taharqa and 22 vassal kings.[18] One inscription is attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II.[19]

A plaster cast of one of the Assyrian inscriptions became the first relic of the ancient Assyrian empire to be brought to the United Kingdom, having been prepared by Joseph Bonomi the Younger in 1834.[20]

A number of Greco-Roman inscriptions were carved at the site.

The most significant of these is attributed to the Legio III Gallica of Roman Emperor Caracalla (211–217 AD), who was of Punic and Syrian descent and whose official name was "Marcus Aurelius Septimius Bassianus Antoninus". The inscription is related to the road his forces built at the site. The inscription includes the words "Lyco Flumen", which provided scholars such as Edward Robinson to conclude that the Nahr el-Kalb was the ancient Lycus river.[21][22]

Two of the inscriptions are in Greek, one of which still can be read as commemorating road or engineering work left by Proclus, Byzantine governor of Phoenicia in 382 AD in the 4th century in Lebanon under Theodosius I (379–395 AD).[4]

Two Arabic inscriptions are known.

The earliest was dedicated to the Mamluk sultan Barquq (1382–1399).[2]

An inscription dedicated to Emir of Lebanon Fakhr-al-Din II (1572–1635) was noted by Henry Maundrell in 1697,[12] but by the 19th century this inscription was no longer legible.[3]

The first colonial memorial is dedicated to Napoleon III's 1860–61 intervention in Lebanon.[4]

Two inscriptions (1919 and 1930) mark the Pursuit to Haritan, when the Allied forces took Damascus, Homs and Aleppo in October 1918 towards the end of World War I.[4] The first inscription is dedicated to Harry Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps,[4] and the second to the Australian, New Zealand, Indian, and French contingents, as well as the Sharifian Army of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.[4]

In October 1918, an inscription was carved to mark the British and French occupation of Beirut and Tripoli, during the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.[4]

The next inscription was left by French troops under General Gouraud, of the French Fourth Army, who took Damascus in July 1920 in the Battle of Maysalun. General Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of the State of Greater Lebanon on 1 September 1920.[4]

In 1942, the Allied forces "cut in the face of the cliff an inscription commemorating the freeing of Syria and the Lebanons" from Vichy France.[23]

In 1946, a monument was erected in celebration of the independence of Lebanon from France, which came in 1943.[4]

In 2000, Lebanese demonstrators, including supporters of ex-general and current politician Emile Lahoud, erected a monument to marking the departure of Israeli troops from Lebanon.[24]