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The capital and largest city of Lebanon, in the western part of the country on the Mediterranean Sea. Founded by the Phoenicians, it was an important Greek and Roman trade center. Beirut was the scene of bitter factional fighting between Christians and Muslims after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975 and was further destroyed by an Israeli siege in 1982. Population: 1,250,000.
For more information on Beirut, visit Britannica.com.
Beirut was originally a Phoenician city and in ancient times was called Berytus. After 1500 B.C. it became known as a trade center. Beirut was prominent under the Seleucids but became more important under the Romans, when it was not only a commercial town—with a large trade in wine and linens—but also a colony with some territory. In the 3d cent. A.D., Beirut had a famous school of Roman law. The city declined after an earthquake in 551. Beirut was captured by the Arabs in 635. The Crusaders under Baldwin I took the city in 1110, and it was part of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem until 1291, despite a siege by Saladin and the Egyptians in 1182. After 1517 the Druze controlled the city under the Ottoman Empire.
In the 19th cent. Beirut was one of the centers of the revolt of Muhammad Ali of Egypt against the Ottoman Turks. Ibrahim Pasha took it for the Egyptians (1830), but in 1840 the French and British bombarded and captured the city, reestablishing Ottoman rule. It was taken (1918) by French troops in World War I. Beirut became the capital of Lebanon in 1920 under the French mandate. The French rapidly developed the city, despite the domestic tensions that arose between the Muslim and Christian populations.
After World War II and the creation of Israel in 1948, thousands of Palestinian refugees entered Lebanon, many settling in Beirut. Violence erupted in 1958, and fierce fighting began again in 1975 and 1976 when the civil war broke out. Beirut was divided into territories run by many separate, religious-based militias. West Beirut was devastated in 1982 by Israeli forces fighting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) units based there. A multinational peacekeeping force was established after some 1,000 Palestinians were massacred by Israel's Lebanese Christian allies. In Apr., 1983, a terrorist bombing partially destroyed the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 50 people. In October, 260 U.S. Marines and 60 French soldiers were killed in Beirut when a truck filled with explosives was driven into their military compound. U.S. and French forces were withdrawn in 1984. Throughout the 1980s the city was a base for a number of militant extremist groups.
In 1990 Christian and Muslim militias withdrew, ending the division of Beirut and returning it to the control of the national government. However, Beirut's economy and infrastructure had been destroyed by the years of fighting. In the early 1990s Lebanese billionaire Rafiq Hariri, who became Lebanon's prime minister, launched a multibillion dollar effort, through the company Solidere, to rebuild central Beirut as a symbol of the nation's postwar aspirations. Although there has been much rebuilding, Beirut has not fully recovered its prewar prosperity.
Bibliography
See L. Fawaz, Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth Century Beirut (1983); F. Debbas, Beirut, Our Memory (1986); F. Ajami, Beirut: City of Regrets (1988).
The capital of Lebanon.
Beirut, on the coast of the Mediterranean, is Lebanon's center of government and finance. It has been part of various empires through history, and its archaeological treasures attest to the multiplicity of its historic occupiers and rulers. The city has undergone substantial changes in its appearance, as devastating earthquakes have hit the city several times in the last two millennia. There are no reliable demographic statistics on the current inhabitants of Beirut. The city has over 1 million inhabitants, and Greater Beirut has around 1.5 million. The city has existed since the time of the Canaanites. The origin of its name is unknown, although it is often said to be Ba'l Brit, one of the deities of the Canaan-ites. A variation of the name in Hebrew, Syriac, and Phoenician means "a well," referring to its rich water sources. The city's name was given to a vilayet during the Ottoman Empire and was in a jurisdiction separate from Mount Lebanon.
The association of Beirut and Lebanon is a twentieth-century phenomenon. When the French formed Greater Lebanon in 1920, Beirut, along with other districts, was joined with the area of Mount Lebanon to compose a new political entity. Beirut was added for economic reasons: Mount Lebanon needed access to the sea, and the port of Beirut had had a crucial economic regional role since the nineteenth century. The people of Beirut at the time had a different demographic composition than Mount Lebanon, which was predominantly Druze and Maronite (Christian).
Beirut gradually grew in size and political significance. The centers of administration and government were located there, as were educational institutions such as the American University of Beirut and the Jesuit Saint Joseph University, both of which were founded in the nineteenth century. The centrality of Beirut increasingly marginalized other regions, including Mount Lebanon. This led to massive waves of migration into the city by people seeking education and jobs. This population movement changed the demographics of the city, which had been mainly Sunni and non-Maronite Christian: Maronites were increasingly present in the city, and Shiʿa began settling in large numbers as early as the 1950s.
Beirut was enlarged in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of the inflow of former rural residents who could not afford to live within the city boundaries. The "suburbs" of Beirut (as they came to be called) grew to include more than half a million migrants. Hundreds of thousands of Shiʿa fleeing southern Lebanon, the center of the confrontation between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, resided in East Beirut and South Beirut, in what was later called the "poverty belt." Factories in East Beirut attracted Lebanese looking for work. During the period of prosperity and glamour before the Lebanese Civil War of 1958, Beirut was actually two cities: the old Beirut, where the rich and the middle class lived and prospered, and the old suq (market) attracted shoppers from around the region; and the suburbs, where poor Lebanese (mostly Shiʿa, Armenians, Palestinians, and poor Christians) lived. The poor Lebanese came into contact with Palestinians in refugee camps in and around the city. This contact revolutionized the political situation in Lebanon for much of the 1960s and 1970s. The presence of a large student population in the capital helped the efforts of the PLO and its Lebanese allies who wanted to draw attention to the plight of the South and the poor in general.
The primacy of Beirut was shattered by the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990. The city that had symbolized prosperity and ostentation came to symbolize bloodshed and cruelty. The war began in Beirut, in the Maronite suburb of Ayn al-Rummana, where a bus carrying Palestinians was ambushed in April 1975 by gunmen belonging to the Phalange Party. The war sharpened sectarian divisions in the capital and produced the Green Line, a street that separated East Beirut (predominantly Christian) from West Beirut (predominantly Muslim, although it continued to house a substantial Christian population). The length of the war brought some degree of "sectarian purity" to the two sections, although Lebanese belonging to the "wrong sect" continued to live - at their peril - in their customary dwelling places. Attempts at "sectarian cleansing" were relatively successful in East Beirut, when forces loyal to the Phalange Party evicted hundreds of thousands of Shiʿa and Palestinians from their homes. Refugee camps located in East Beirut were razed and demolished. There was no eviction of Christians from West Beirut, although some voluntarily left due to hightened sectarian tensions and the rise of Islamic fundamentalist parties in the 1980s.
In the course of the civil war, the downtown area (where the parliament and the financial district were located) was completely destroyed. Looting of shops in 1975 and 1976 forced businesses to relocate into sectarian enclaves. Local militiamen controlled the downtown area through much of the war. Although those Lebanese who could afford to emigrate did so, the city did not suffer from underpopulation because many were still coming to the capital seeking jobs and education: The instability of southern Lebanon continued to send waves of migrants into the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The end of the civil war was supposed to bring an end to the division of Beirut. Reference to the Green Line is now politically unacceptable. The government of Rafiq al-Hariri has emphasized and showcased its reconstructed downtown Beirut, although critics complain about the purely commercial nature of the enterprise. Concerned economists warn that the reconstruction plans have only reinforced the service-sector bias of the prewar economy, which, according to critics, was responsible for the social injustices that were manifested in the civil war. War damage was repaired with great success, and new residential and office buildings have have been constructed, although only the rich can afford to occupy them: Residential apartments can sell for $1 million. The newly completed downtown area of Beirut attracts tourists and visitors from around the region, and some from Europe. The reconstruction plans undertaken by the government of Hariri have been largely responsible for the ballooning of the foreign debt of Lebanon, now exceeding $30 billion. Most of the downtown enterprises are restaurants and cafes; the office buildings have not yet been occupied.
Bibliography
Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002.
Friedman, Robert. From Beirut to Jerusalem. London: Collins, 1990.
Gavin, Angus, and Maluf, Ramaz. Beirut Reborn: TheRestoration and Development of the Central Districts. London: Academy Editions, 1996.
Makdisi, Jean Said. Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir. New York: Persea Books, 1990.
— AS'AD ABUKHALIL
Capital of Lebanon, located in western Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea.
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The country code is: 961
The city code is: 1
Local Time: Jul 24, 8:12 PM
| Beirut بيروت |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Governorate | Beirut |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Abdel Mounim Ariss |
| Area | |
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| - Metro | |
| Time zone | +2 (UTC) |
| - Summer (DST) | +3 (UTC) |
| Website: City of Beirut | |
Beirut (Arabic: بيروت, transliteration: Bayrūt) is the capital, largest city, and chief seaport of Lebanon. It is sometimes referred to by its French name, Beyrouth. There are wide-ranging estimates of Beirut's population, from as low as 938,940 people,[1] to 1,303,129 people,[2] to as high as 2,012,000.[3] The lack of an exact figure is due to the fact that no "comprehensive" population census has been taken in Lebanon since 1932.[4]
Beirut had undergone major reconstruction in recent years and has hosted the Francophonie and the Arab League summits in 2002. In 2007, Beirut hosted the ceremony for Le Prix Albert Londres, which rewards outstanding Francophone journalists every year.[5] The city is set to host the Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009.
Beirut was considered as a possible candidate for the 2024 Summer Olympics games. The massive $1.2 billion Sannine Zenith project will make Lebanon capable of holding the games.
The city is home to numerous international organizations. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is headquartered in Downtown Beirut while the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) both have regional offices in Beirut covering the Arab world. The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) is also headquartered in Beirut.
In
Originally named Bêrūt, "The Wells" by the Phoenicians, Beirut's history goes back more than 5000 years. Excavations in the downtown area have unearthed layers of Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman, Arab and Ottoman civilizations. The first historical reference to Beirut dates from the 14th century BC, when it is mentioned in the cuneiform tablets of the "Amarna letters." Ammunira of Biruta (Beirut) sent 3 letters to the pharaoh of Egypt. Biruta is also referenced in the letters from Rib-Hadda of Byblos. The most ancient settlement was on an island in the river that progressively silted up. The city was known in antiquity as Berytus (see also List of traditional Greek place names); this name was taken in 1934 for the archaeological journal published by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Beirut.
In 140 BC, the city was taken and destroyed by Diodotus Tryphon in his contest with Antiochus VII Sidetes for the throne of the Seleucid monarchy. Beirut was soon rebuilt on a more regularized Hellenistic plan, renamed Laodicea in Phoenicia (Greek: Λαοδικεια ή του Φοινίκη) or Laodicea in Canaan, in honor of a Seleucid Laodice. The modern city overlies the ancient one and little archaeology had been accomplished until after the end of the civil war in 1991; now large sites in the devastated city center have been opened to archaeological exploration. A dig in 1994 established that one of Beirut's modern streets, Souk Tawile, still follows the lines of an ancient Hellenistic/Roman one.
Mid-coxareno century coins of Berytus bear the head of Tyche, goddess of fortune; on the reverse, the city's symbol appears: a dolphin entwines an anchor. This symbol was taken up by the early printer Aldus Manutius in 15th century Venice.
Under the Romans, it was enriched by the dynasty of Herod the Great, and was made a colonia, Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus, in 14 BC. Beirut's school of law was widely known at the time. Two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Phoenicia, taught at the law school under the Severan emperors. When Justinian assembled his Pandects in the 6th century, a large part of the corpus of laws were derived from these two jurists, and Justinian recognized the school as one of the three official law schools of the empire (533). Within a few years, as the result of a disastrous earthquake (551), the students were transferred to Sidon.
Beirut passed to the Arabs in 635. As a trading centre of the eastern Mediterranean, Beirut was overshadowed by Akka during the Middle Ages. From 1110 to 1291 it was in the hands of the Crusaders. No matter who was its nominal overlord, whether Turk or Mamluk, Beirut was ruled locally by Druze emirs. One of these, Fakr ed-Din Maan II, fortified it early in the 17th century, but the Ottomans retook it in 1763 and thenceforth, with the help of Damascus, Beirut successfully broke Akka's monopoly on Syrian maritime trade and for a few years supplanted it as the main trading centre in the region. During the succeeding epoch of rebellion against Ottoman hegemony at Akka under Jezzar and Abdullah pashas, Beirut declined to a small town (population about 10,000), and was fought over among the Druze, the Turks and the pashas.
After Ibrahim Pasha captured Akka in 1832, Beirut began its early modern revival. In 1888, Beirut was made capital of a vilayet in Syria, including the sanjaks Latakia, Tripoli, Beirut, Akka and Bekaa. Beirut became a very cosmopolitan city and had close links with Europe and the United States. Beirut became a centre of missionary activity, which was generally very unsuccessful in conversions (a massacre of Christians in 1860 was the occasion for further European interventions), but did build an impressive education system. This included the Syrian Protestant College, which was established by American missionaries and eventually became the American University of Beirut (AUB). Beirut became the centre of Arab intellectual activity in the 19th century. Provided with water from a British company and gas from a French one, the city thrived on exporting silk grown on nearby Mount Lebanon. After French engineers established a modern harbor (1894) and a rail link across Lebanon to Damascus, and then to Aleppo (1907), much of the trade was carried by French ships to Marseille, and soon French influence in the area exceeded that of any other European power. In 1911, the population mix was reported in the Encyclopædia Britannica as Muslims, 36,000; Christians, 77,000; Jews, 2500; Druze, 400; foreigners, 4100. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Beirut, along with all of Lebanon was placed under the French Mandate.
Lebanon achieved independence in 1943 and Beirut became its capital city. Beirut remained the intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist center until 1975 when a brutal civil war broke out in Lebanon. During most of the war, the city was divided between the largely Muslim west part and the Christian east. The central area of the city, previously the focus of much of the commercial and cultural activities, became a no man's land. Many of the city's best and brightest inhabitants fled to other countries. In 1983, French and US barracks were bombed, killing 302.
Since the end of the war in 1989, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut, and by the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the city had somewhat regained its status as a tourist, cultural, and intellectual center in the Middle East, as well as a center for commerce, fashion, and
media. However, many would say the city has lost its premier status, due to competition from places like
The 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri near the Saint George Bay in Beirut shook the entire country. Approximately one million people gathered for an opposition rally in Beirut, a month after the death of Hariri. It is the largest rally in Lebanon's history. The last Syrian troops withdrew from Beirut on April 26 2005.
Backed by the Mount Lebanon mountains, Beirut is situated on a spur where the narrow coastal plain projects into the Mediterranean Sea. Beirut's coast is rather diverse; rocky beaches, sandy shores, and cliffs are situated beside one another.
Beirut is located halfway along the Lebanese coastline with Byblos and Tripoli to the North, and Sidon and Tyre to the South. The Lebanon Mountains surround much of Beirut, with Eastern Lebanon behind them. Its location makes it easy to reach from almost any location in Lebanon.
Beirut has a mediterranean climate characterized by a hot and dry (but humid) summer, pleasant fall and spring, and cool, rainy winter. August is the hottest month of the year with a monthly average high temperature of 29 °C (85 °F), and January and February are the coldest months with a monthly average low temperature of 10 °C (50 °F). During the afternoon and evening, the wind direction is from the west, the mediterranean sea direction, towards inland; at night the wind direction is reversed, blowing from the land out to sea.
Winter is the rainy season, with major precipitation falling after December. The average annual rainfall is 860 millimetres (34.1 Inches); the rainfall is concentrated during scattered days in winter falling in heavy cloudbursts.
| Weather averages for Beirut | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 16 (61) | 16 (62) | 18 (65) | 21 (71) | 23 (75) | 26 (80) | 28 (84) | 29 (85) | 28 (83) | 26 (80) | 22 (72) | 17 (64) | () |
| Average low °C (°F) | 10 (50) | 10 (50) | 11 (52) | 14 (58) | 17 (63) | 20 (69) | 22 (73) | 23 (75) | 22 (72) | 20 (68) | 15 (59) | 11 (53) | () |
| Precipitation cm (inch) | 18 (7.4) | 15 (6) | 9 (3.8) | 5 (2.0) | 1 (0.7) | 0.25 (0.1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0.5 (0.2) | 4 (1.9) | 11 (4.7) | 17 (6.9) | () |
| Source: Weatherbase[7] 2007 | |||||||||||||
The districts of Beirut are:
There are twenty-one universities in Beirut, including:
The city's airport is Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport and is located in the southern suburbs. It is the main port of entry into the country along with the Port of Beirut.
By land, the city has frequent bus connections to other cities in Lebanon and major cities in Syria; the latter are also served by either service or taxis. Buses for northern destinations and Syria leave from Charles Helou Station.
Beirut, in addition to Sidon and Tripoli, hosted the 2000 AFC Asian Cup. There are two stadiums in the city, Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium and Beirut Municipal Stadium.
There are seven football teams in the Lebanese Premier League that are based in Beirut: Nejmeh, Al-Ansar, Al-Hikma, Al Ahed, Al-Mabarrah, Safa and Shabab Al-Sahel.
Beirut has two Basketball teams, Al Riyadi and Al Hikma, that participate in the premiere division of the Lebanese Basketball Championship.
Other sports events in Beirut include the annual Beirut Marathon, a weekly Horse racing at Beirut Hippodrome, and Golf and Tennis tournaments that take place at Golf Club of Lebanon.
Beirut is the main center in Lebanon for the television, newspaper, and book publishing industries. The television stations include Tele Liban, LBC, Future TV, New TV, Al-Manar, NBN , and OTV. The newspapers include An-Nahar, As-Safir, Al Mustaqbal, Al Akhbar, Al-Balad, Ad-Diyar, Al Anwar, Al Sharq, L'Orient Le Jour and the Daily Star.
Beirut is one of the most religiously diverse cities of the Middle East, with Muslims (Sunni, Shi'ite and Druze), Christians (Maronite Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics, Syriacs, Copts, Methodists, Protestants), and atheists all having a significant presence, but mainly the Sunni Muslims are widely spread in Beirut. Most of the Jews of Beirut emigrated to Israel, and the United States when the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, though there are also populations of Lebanese Jews in France and Brazil, one of the more famous ones being the banker Edmond Safra or the violinist Yfrah Neaman. Many of the denominations are actually tiny minorities or, like the Jews, almost non-existent (estimates place the Jewish population at less than 30). The Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics, Syriacs, and Copts all number in the thousands and have a negligible presence when compared to the other religions. For all intents and purposes, Lebanon really only has eight major religions (Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim, Druze, Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, and Protestant). There are no statistics that report atheists in Lebanon. Even though Lebanon is a secular country, family matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance are still handled by the religious authorities representing a person's faith. Calls for civil marriage are unanimously rejected by the religious authorities but civil marriages held in another country are recognized by Lebanese civil authorities.
Beirut has had a history of political strife due to religious divisions. Religion has historically divided Lebanese society decisively, evident in its prolonged civil war.
The patron god of Beirut in Phoenician mythology is Baal-Berit, also god of the sea.
There are hundreds of art galleries in Beirut and its suburbs. Lebanese people are very involved in art and art production. More than 5000 fine art artists and equal artists working in music, design, architecture, theatre, movie industry, photography and all other forms of art are producing in Lebanon. Every year hundreds of fine art students graduate from universities and institutions. Artist Workshops are flourishing all around Lebanon. In Beirut specifically, the art scene is very rich, vibrant and diverse.
On another scale, fashion and couture are very much thriving throughout the city. Fashion houses are opening up and a number of international fashion designers have displayed their work in various fashion shows. Beirut is home to international fashion designers such as Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, and Georges Chakra.
Paris, France (1992)
Yerevan, Armenia
Los Angeles, 
Vitória, Brazil
São
Paulo, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nicosia, Cyprus
Cairo, Egypt
Athens, Greece
Istanbul, Turkey
Isfahan, Iran (2007)[8]
Sydney, Australia
 Sunset in Beirut, Lebanon |
 Beirut Downtown, Lebanon |
 Sursock House, Beirut, Lebanon |
 Sursock House, Beirut, Lebanon |
 View from bickfaya, Beirut, Lebanon |
 Beirut, Lebanon |
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