Climate change and corruption endanger an ancient valley in Lebanon Imad Beainy stretches at his enclave on a cliff at Bisri Village, Lebanon, Thursday Oct. 1, 2020. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) BISRI VALLEY, Lebanon — On a remote cliff about 20 miles south of Beirut, a late morning sun roused Imad Beainy. He got out of bed, slipped on a pair of shorts and walked to the cliff’s edge, lighting a joint as he looked over the fruit groves and wild meadows of the Bisri Valley. Hewed between two mountain ranges, the valley extends some six miles along a tributary of the Awali river. In the distance, Beainy glimpsed the sun shining off the cream-colored tiles of the 300-year-old Mar Moussa church. Closer to the cliff, sprinkled around a 15th century Mamluk-Ottoman bridge and the ruins of a Roman temple, lay some 50 other archaeological sites.