Lebanon
Fast facts
- Capital
- Beirut
- Largest city
- Beirut
- Official language
- Arabic
- Languages
- Lebanese Arabic
- Currency
- Lebanese pound
- Time zone
- EET
- Drives on
- Right
- Calling code
- +961
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Lebanon” page (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Lebanon is a country in the Middle East, in Western Asia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. It has borders with Israel to the south and Syria to the east and north. It also shares a maritime border with Cyprus to the northwest, away from the country’s short distance.
History & Data
Lebanon was named Phoenicia under the Roman Empire. Some of the biggest temples in Antiquity were there at Heliopolis. In the 7th century Arabs conquered Phoenicia and imposed their religion Islam. But many areas in the mountains remained Christian as the “Maronites”. However, the Christians who remained in the mountains became Arabized and started identifying themselves as “Arab Christians”.
Lebanon has been independent since 22 November 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 (4,036 square miles).
The Cedar tree is the national symbol of Lebanon because many of them grow in the Lebanon Mountains.
Population of Lebanon
Around 5.2 million people live in Lebanon.
Around 14 million Lebanese people live outside Lebanon.
The people of Lebanon
About 51% of Lebanese people are Muslim and 44% are Christian with the remaining 5% being Druze. Within the Muslim population, Shias make up the majority with Sunnis being the minority.
The official language of Lebanon is Arabic and it is the most common language. French, English, and Armenian are also common languages.
Governorates and districts
Lebanon is divided into six governorates. These are divided into 25 districts. The districts are also divided into several municipalities. The governorates and their districts are listed below:
- Beirut Governorate
- The Beirut Governorate is not divided into districts and is limited to the city of Beirut
- Nabatieh Governorate (Jabal Amel)
- Bint Jbeil
- Hasbaya
- Marjeyoun
- Nabatieh
- Beqaa Governorate
- Baalbek
- Hermel
- Rashaya
- Western Beqaa (al-Beqaa al-Gharbi)
- Zahle
- North Governorate (al-Shamal)
- Akkar
- Batroun
- Bsharri
- Koura
- Miniyeh-Danniyeh
- Tripoli
- Zgharta
- Mount Lebanon Governorate (Jabal Lubnan)
- Aley
- Baabda
- Byblos (Jbeil)
- Chouf
- Keserwan
- Matn
- South Governorate (al-Janoub)
- Jezzine
- Sidon (Saida)
- Tyre (Sur)
Written for younger readers
Lebanon, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Asia
Lebanon is a country also known as Republic of Lebanon. It consists of a narrow strip of territory and is one of the world’s smaller sovereign states. 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. The capital city is Beirut and the currency used is Lebanese Pound (LBP) .
Lebanon is situated at the eastern side of Mediterranean sea, bordering Syria to its east and Israel to its south.
There are no official census has taken place in Lebanon since 1932 due to the sensitive balance between the country’s religious groups. There are no official data of the census data but based on estimation, there are about 4.43 million ~ 6.1 million populations lived in Lebanon.
Arabic language is the most commonly language used in Lebanon.
Due to almost no data on population census, it is estimated almost half of population practices Islam, with a quarter practices Maronite (Eastern Roman Catholics) , and the others minorities practices Druze, Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox.
Weight lifting has been popular with many Lebanese athletes since the mid-20th century, and the country has traditionally sent weight lifters to international competitions with some regularity.
Tripoli railway station -It is located near El-Mina, Tripoli, Lebanon. It began operating in 1911 and was connected to the Syrian city, Homs, with a single track. It formed the terminus of the Orient Express line in the twenties, thirties and forties of the last century. Tripoli station was connected to the central station of Beirut (Mar Mikael) in 1945.
During World War I, the Ottomans, and for military reasons, damaged the Tripoli/Homs line. Ruined, the station was nationalized in 1920 at the time of the French mandate in Lebanon and Syria. In 1943, after independence, the station became the property of the Lebanese state.
In 1975, the station was abandoned and now contains a number of multipurpose buildings. These buildings were severely damaged during the civil war (1975–1991). A series of ancient multi-purpose wagons, two German G7 class locomotives made in 1895, and four German G8 locomotives, made in 1901 and 1906 remain on the site. The traces of war are visible on the vehicles.
Chouwen Lake - The Chouwen Lake is part of the famous Ibrahim River where the water gathers and appears as a lake, it’s also part of the Jabal Moussa Biosphere reserve
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Lebanon” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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