In Tyre’s Al-Medina ruins lies an ancient glass works. In Phoenician times, these shores were famed for glassware, but now the art has all but died out. All but. In the village of Sarafand, just north of Tyre, the Khalife family blows clear, greenish-hued glass as it has for generations. Known as Sarepta to the ancients, this village was once a hub of glassmaking.

To the jugs and carafes of old, naturally tinted blue, green or brown, Nisrine Khalife has added new ornaments of brilliant colours. The Khalife’s shop is a cave of treasure, with coloured glass winking in the light like gems. In the first century BC, the blowpipe was invented, and in the yard behind the Khalifes’, a craftsman works at the furnace blowing a bubble of molten glass.

Nearby sit bins of smashed bottles – the glass used here is all recycled. Happily for the visitor, there’s many an authentic, hand-made gift that’s worth buying – we love the chunky wine glasses and table olive oil decanters. The shop is in the centre of Sarafand on the old coast road, which you can reach by bus (not the van, which takes the highway) from Tyre.

(Hussein Khalife +961 3 906091)