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Lebanon is located in West Asia between latitudes 33° and 35° N and longitudes 35° and 37° E. Its land straddles the "northwest of the Arabian Plate ". [171] The country's surface area is 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi) of which 10,230 square kilometres (3,950 sq mi) is land.
- President
The president of the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: رئيس...
- Culture of Lebanon
The culture of Lebanon and the Lebanese people emerged from...
- Najib Mikati
Najib Azmi Mikati (Arabic: نجيب عزمي ميقاتي; born 24...
- Coat of Arms
Lebanon never officially adopted a coat of arms or emblem....
- Religion in Lebanon
Saint George Maronite Cathedral and the Mohammad Al-Amin...
- Druze
The Druze (/ ˈ d r uː z / DROOZ; Arabic: دَرْزِيّ, darzī or...
- Demographics of Lebanon
This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including...
- Lebanese People
The Lebanese people (Arabic: الشعب اللبناني / ALA-LC:...
- Greater Lebanon
The State of Greater Lebanon (Arabic: دولة لبنان الكبير,...
- Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon (Arabic: جَبَل لُبْنَان, jabal lubnān,...
- President
Lebanese people. The history of Lebanon covers the history of the modern Republic of Lebanon and the earlier emergence of Greater Lebanon under the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, as well as the previous history of the region, covered by the modern state.
- Overview
- Land
- Relief
- Drainage
- Soils
Lebanon, country located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of a narrow strip of territory and is one of the world’s smaller sovereign states. The capital is Beirut.
Though Lebanon, particularly its coastal region, was the site of some of the oldest human settlements in the world—the Phoenician ports of Tyre (modern Ṣūr), Sidon (Ṣaydā), and Byblos (Jubayl) were dominant centres of trade and culture in the 3rd millennium bce—it was not until 1920 that the contemporary state came into being. In that year France, which administered Lebanon as a League of Nations mandate, established the state of Greater Lebanon. Lebanon then became a republic in 1926 and achieved independence in 1943.
Lebanon shares many of the cultural characteristics of the Arab world, yet it has attributes that differentiate it from many of its Arab neighbours. Its rugged, mountainous terrain has served throughout history as an asylum for diverse religious and ethnic groups and for political dissidents. Lebanon is one of the most densely populated countries in the Mediterranean area and has a high rate of literacy. Notwithstanding its meagre natural resources, Lebanon long managed to serve as a busy commercial and cultural centre for the Middle East.
This outward image of vitality and growth nevertheless disguised serious problems. Not only did Lebanon have to grapple with internal problems of social and economic organization, but it also had to struggle to define its position in relation to Israel, to its Arab neighbours, and to Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The delicate balance of Lebanese confessionalism (the proportional sharing of power between the country’s religious communities) was eroded under the pressures of this struggle; communal rivalries over political power, exacerbated by the complex issues that arose from the question of Palestinian presence and from a growing “state within a state,” led to the outbreak of an extremely damaging civil war in 1975 and a breakdown of the governmental system. After the end of the civil war in 1990, Lebanon gradually reclaimed a degree of relative socioeconomic and political stability; because of the continued problems of external intervention and troubled confessional relations, however, many of Lebanon’s challenges persisted into the early 21st century.
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Lebanon is bounded to the north and east by Syria, to the south by Israel, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea.
As in any mountainous region, the physical geography of Lebanon is extremely complex and varied. Landforms, climate, soils, and vegetation undergo some sharp and striking changes within short distances. Four distinct physiographic regions may be distinguished: a narrow coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanon Mountains (Jabal Lubnān), Al-Biqāʿ (Bekaa) valley, and the Anti-Lebanon and Hermon ranges running parallel to the Lebanese Mountains.
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The coastal plain is narrow and discontinuous, almost disappearing in places. It is formed of river-deposited alluvium and marine sediments, which alternate suddenly with rocky beaches and sandy bays, and is generally fertile. In the far north it expands to form the ʿAkkār Plain.
The snowcapped Lebanon Mountains are one of the most prominent features of the country’s landscape. The range, rising steeply from the coast, forms a ridge of limestone and sandstone, cut by narrow and deep gorges. It is approximately 100 miles (160 km) long and varies in width from 6 to 35 miles (10 to 56 km). Its maximum elevation is at Qurnat al-Sawdāʾ (10,131 feet [3,088 metres]) in the north, where the renowned cedars of Lebanon grow in the shadow of the peak. The range then gradually slopes to the south, rising again to a second peak, Jabal Ṣannīn (8,842 feet [2,695 metres]), northeast of Beirut. To the south the range branches westward to form the Shūf Mountains and at its southern reaches gives way to the hills of Galilee, which are lower.
Al-Biqāʿ valley lies between the Lebanon Mountains in the west and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the east; its fertile soils consist of alluvial deposits from the mountains on either side. The valley, approximately 110 miles (180 km) long and from 6 to 16 miles (10 to 26 km) wide, is part of the great East African Rift System. In the south Al-Biqāʿ becomes hilly and rugged, blending into the foothills of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Shaykh) to form the upper Jordan Valley.
Lebanese rivers, though numerous, are mostly winter torrents, draining the western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains. The only exception is the Līṭānī River (90 miles [145 km] long), which rises near the famed ruins of Baalbek (Baʿlabakk) and flows southward in Al-Biqāʿ to empty into the Mediterranean near historic Tyre. The two other important river...
Soil quality and makeup in Lebanon vary by region. The shallow limestone soil of the mountains provides a relatively poor topsoil. The lower and middle slopes, however, are intensively cultivated, the terraced hills standing as a scenic relic of the ingenious tillers of the past. On the coast and in the northern mountains, reddish topsoils with a h...
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Exclusive economic zone. 19,516 km 2 (7,535 sq mi) Lebanon is a small country in the Eastern Mediterranean, located at approximately 34˚N, 35˚E. It stretches along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and its length is almost three times its width. From north to south, the width of its terrain becomes narrower.
- Ranked 161st
- Mediterranean Sea, 0 m (0 ft)
- Qurnat as Sawda', 3,088 m (10,131 ft)
- Middle East
Lebanon has been independent since 1943. Its capital city is Beirut . Lebanon has two chains of mountains. It has a long coastline. The area of Lebanon is 10,452 square kilometers. The Cedar tree is the national symbol of Lebanon because many of them grow in the Lebanon Mountains.
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, by Israel to the south, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance away from the country's coastline. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterlands has contributed to the country's ...
