Lebanon
Capital: Beirut · Western Asia
Lebanon, officially the Lebanese Republic, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia.
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Drone photograph of the Qadisha Valley, photograph taken October 2019, facing almost due west from the Qannoubine Monastery (lower-left)
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St. George's Greek-Orthodox Cathedral in Downtown Beirut. In the background spires of Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque can be seen.
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Did you know?
Human habitation in Lebanon dates to 5000 BC. From 3200 to 539 BC, it was part of Phoenicia, a maritime civilization that spanned the Mediterranean Basin. In 64 BC, the region became part of the Roman Empire and the subsequent Byzantine Empire. After the seventh century, it came under the rule of different Arab Islamic caliphates, including the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. The 11th century saw the establishment of Christian Crusader states, which fell to the Ayyubids and the Mamluks. Lebanon came under Ottoman rule in the early 16th century.
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Etymology
The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn (𐤋𐤁𐤍) meaning "white", apparently from its snow-capped peaks. Occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The name is recorded in Egypt as rmnn (Ancient Egyptian: 𓂋𓏠𓈖𓈖𓈉; it had no letter corresponding to l).
The name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible as לְבָנוֹן Ləḇānon.
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Deir El-Qamar
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Mount Lebanon, Bsharri district
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History
The Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary at around 12000 BC.
Evidence of early settlement in Lebanon was found in Byblos, considered among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The evidence dates back to earlier than 5000 BC. Archaeologists discovered remnants of prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons, and burial jars left by the Neolithic and Chalcolithic fishing communities who lived on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea over 7,000 years ago.
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Mount Lebanon, Bsharri district
Photo: Linaduliban at English Wikipedia, Public domain · source
This file was uploaded with Commonist . Farm worker accomodation on the road from Baalbek to the mountains in Lebanon
Photo: Peripitus, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Geography
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". 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. Lebanon has a coastline and border of 225 kilometres (140 mi) on the Mediterranean Sea to the west, a 375 kilometres (233 mi) border shared with Syria to the north and east and a 79 kilometres (49 mi) long border with Israel to the south. The border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights is disputed by Lebanon in a small area called Shebaa Farms.
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12th Century crusader castle at Byblos, Lebanon
Photo: Peripitus, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Government and politics
Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy that includes confessionalism. The National Pact, erected in 1943, laid out a governing arrangement intended to harmonize the interests of the country's major religious groups. The president has to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the Parliament a Shi'a Muslim, the deputy prime minister and the deputy speaker of Parliament Eastern Orthodox. This system is intended to deter sectarian conflict and to represent fairly the demographic distribution of the 18 recognized religious groups in government.
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Economy
Lebanon's constitution states that 'the economic system is free and ensures private initiative and the right to private property'. Lebanon's economy follows a laissez-faire model. Most of the economy is dollarized, and the country has no restrictions on the movement of capital across its borders. The Lebanese government's intervention in foreign trade is minimal. The Investment Development Authority of Lebanon was established with the aim of promoting investment in Lebanon. In 2001, Investment Law No.360 was enacted to reinforce the organisation's mission.
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Demographics
Lebanon had an estimated population of 5,592,631 in 2021, with the number of Lebanese nationals estimated at 4,680,212 in July; however, no official census has been conducted since 1932 due to the sensitive confessional political balance between Lebanon's various religious groups. Identifying all Lebanese as ethnically Arab is a widely employed example of panethnicity, as the Lebanese "are descended from many different peoples who are either indigenous, or have occupied, invaded, or settled this corner of the world", making Lebanon, "a mosaic of closely interrelated cultures".
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Culture
The culture of Lebanon reflects the legacy of various civilizations spanning thousands of years. Originally home to the Canaanite-Phoenicians, and then conquered and occupied by the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks and most recently the French, Lebanese culture has over the millennia evolved by borrowing from all of these groups.
Lebanon's diverse population, composed of different ethnic and religious groups, has further contributed to the country's festivals, musical styles and literature as well as cuisine.
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