Beirut
Beirut (Template:Lang-ar, transliterated Bayrūt - the French name, Beyrouth, was also commonly used in English in the past) is the capital, largest city and chief seaport of Lebanon.
Beirut is the home of about 1.8 million people (2.1 million if the surrounding metropolitan areas are included), and is the commercial, banking and financial center of the region. Beirut was known as "The Paris of the East" prior to the civil war because of its cosmopolitan atmosphere. This city is slowly regaining that reputation as a result of major reconstruction. Beirut is set to host the Winter Asian Games in 2011 and Jeux de la Francophonie (Francophone Games) in 2009. It may also serve as the location for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is headquartered in Beirut. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) both have regional offices in Beirut covering the Arab World.
The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) is headquartered in Beirut.
Religion
Beirut is one of the most diverse cities of the Middle East, as it is shared by Christians (Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestants), and Muslims (Sunni and Shi'ite) as well as a minority of Druze. Most of the Jews of Beirut emigrated to the USA when the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975 and now predominantly live in Brooklyn, New York. Beirut was torn apart during the Lebanese Civil War and was divided between the Muslim West Beirut and the Christian East. The city today has been re-united and rebuilt.
Colleges and Universities
In Beirut there are twenty-one universities including the University of Balamand, American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University (originally the first women's college in the Middle East), Université de Saint-Joseph, Global University, Haigazian University, Lebanese University, American University of Science and Technology, Middle East University, Beirut Arab University and the Middle East Canadian Academy of Technology (MECAT).
Geography
Backed by the Mount Lebanon mountains, Beirut is situated on a spur where the narrow coastal plain projects into the Mediterranean Sea. Beirut is located at 33°54' North, 35°31'59" East (33.90, 35.5333). [1]
Transportation
The city's airport, situated in the southern suburbs, was previously known as Beirut International Airport; in 2005 it was renamed Rafic Hariri International Airport in honour of the assassinated former prime minister. By land, the city has frequent bus connections to other cities in Lebanon and major cities in Syria; the latter are also served by service taxis. Buses for northern destinations and Syria leave from Charles Helou station in the north of the city, near the port; those for the south and the Bekaa Valley leave from Cola intersection in the south of the city centre.
Internal transport is served by a number of bus routes and taxis, which most often operate as service taxis on fixed routes but are also available for private hire. The city suffers from considerable traffic congestion at peak hours.
There are two public transportation companies in Beirut, the government owned and operated Office des Chemins de Fer et des Transports en Commun (OCFTC) and the privately owned and operated Lebanese Commuting Company (LCC).
There has been some talk about restoring the country's rail lines which would include the relaunch of rail travel between Beirut and Damascus in Syria.
The city is also home to the largest port on the Eastern Mediterranean. The Port of Beirut is aiming to become a major port in the region for transporting goods to Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and the Gulf states.
Tourism
Before the war Beirut was a popular international tourist destination dubbed the Paris of the Middle East, with many international hotels and a thriving nightlife. In recent years the city has started to rebuild its tourist industry, with major construction and restoration works in progress in the ruined city centre, and a new marina. While rural areas are slightly more conservative, Western dress, including shorts and short skirts, are the norm in Beirut, except in religious buildings.
In addition to the city itself, a number of archeological sites are within reach, including Baalbek and Byblos, which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. In winter, skiing is possible in the mountains at resorts such as Faraya Mzaar Kfardebian.
History
Originally named Bêrūt "The Wells" by the Phoenicians, the first historical reference to Beirut dates from the 15th century BCE, when it is mentioned in a cuneiform tablet that is one of the "Amarna letters." 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 BCE, 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 Canaan, in honor of a Seleucid queen. 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-1st century BCE 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, then made a colonia in the late 1st century CE. 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 CE). 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 Akko during the Middle Ages. From 1110 to 1291 it was in the hands of Crusader lords. 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 Akko'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 Akko under Jezzar and Abdullah pashas, Beirut declined to a small town (population about 10,000), fought over among the Druze, the Turks and the pashas. After Ibrahim Pasha captured Akko 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, Akko 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 include 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 nineteenth 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 Moslems, 36,000; Christians, 77,000; Jews, 2500; Druze, 400; foreigners, 4100.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, Beirut, along with all of Lebanon was given to the French. The French administration showed great preference for the Christian community, leading to religious strains in the city. Lebanon was given its independence following the Second World War and Beirut became its capital city. Beirut remained the intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist centre 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, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut, and the city has regained its status as a tourist, cultural and intellectual centre of the Middle East, as well as the center for commerce, fashion and media. Beirut is home to the international designer, Elie Saab and to some of the most popular and successful satellite television, such as LBC and Future TV. The city was host to the Asian Basketball Championship and the Asian Football Championship. Beirut also successfully hosted the Miss Europe pageant twice.
The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in 2005 in Beirut shook the entire country.
With the withdrawal of the last Syrian troops on April 26 2005, Beirut became free of Syria's suspect politcal agenda. The city's future looks bright, and Beirut may one day regain the dominant position as the cultural and economic center of the eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world.
External links
- Photographs & Commentaries of Places, People, the Environment, Human Rights, the Culture...
- Ancient Beirut/Berytus
- "Phoenicia's Roman school of law
- "Downtown Beirut, rebuilt"
Reference
- Linda Jones Hall, Roman Berytus: Beirut in Late Antiquity, 2004.
- Samir Kassir, Histoire de Beyrouth, Fayard 2003, 732 pages (in French).