Lebanese Architecture
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Lebanese Architecture
The architecture of Lebanon embodies the historical, cultural and religious influences that have shaped Lebanon's built environment. It has been influenced by the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Umayyads, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and French . Additionally, Lebanon is home to many examples of modern and contemporary architecture. Architecturally notable structures in Lebanon include ancient thermae and temples, castles, churches, mosques, hotels, museums, government buildings, souks, residences (including palaces) and towers. Roman architecture Baalbeck is counted as one of the Roman treasures in Lebanon, and is home to many ancient Roman temples built at the end of the third millennium B.C. The city was referred to as the city of the sun (Heliopolis) by the Greeks. The temples have faced theft, earthquakes and civil wars and wear. French, German and Lebanese archaeologists rebuilt the temples. In 1984, Baalbek was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. They are described a ...
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Batroun Makaad El Mir
Batroun ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرُون '; Syriac script: ܒܬܪܘܢ ') is a coastal city in northern Lebanon and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the capital city of Batroun District. Etymology The name ''Batroun'' (Arabic: ''al-Batroun'') is related to the Greek ''Botrys'' (also spelled ''Bothrys''), which was later Latinized to ''Botrus''. Historians believe that the Greek name of the town originates from the Phoenician word, ''bater'', which means ''to cut'' and it refers to the maritime wall that the Phoenicians built in the sea to protect them from tidal waves. Economy and urban development Historically, the city of Batroun was settled at the interface between the sea and the national road that connected Beirut to Tripoli. Lately, the radical shift of the historical functions of the local economic tissue into a leisure service-based economy (nightclubs, bars, restaurants, stores, etc.) has become the unique and only lever of the develo ...
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French People
The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily the descendants of Gauls (including the Belgae) and Romans (or Gallo-Romans, western European Celtic and Italic peoples), as well as Germanic peoples such as the Franks, the Visigoths, the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled in Gaul from east of the Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as various later waves of lower-level irregular migration that have continued to the present day. The Norse also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed significantly to the ancestry of the Normans. Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany, Occi ...
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Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited since 5000BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. During its history, Byblos was part of numerous civilizations, including Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Fatimid, Genoese, Mamluk and Ottoman. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was in ancient Byblos that the Phoenician alphabet, likely the ancestor of the Greek, Latin and all other Western alphabets, was developed. Etymology Byblos appears as ''Kebny'' in Egyptian hieroglyphic records going back to the 4th-dynasty pharaoh Sneferu (BC) and as () in the Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters to the 18th-dynasty pharaohs and IV. In the 1stmillenniumBC, its name appeared ...
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Sea Castle (Sidon)
Sidon's Sea Castle ( ar, قلعة صيدا البحرية, ''Kalaat Saida al-Bahriya'') was built by the crusaders in the thirteenth century as a fortress of the holy land. It is one of the most prominent historical sites in the port city of Sidon, Lebanon. History The city of Sidon is located on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon. This ancient Phoenician city has been of great religious, political and commercial value; it is said to be inhabited since 4000 B.C. In AD 1228, the Crusaders built Sidon's Sea Castle as a fortress on a small island connected to the mainland by a narrow 80m long roadway. The island was formerly the site of a temple to Melqart, the Phoenician version of Heracles. The beauty of the Castle can be seen in old illustrations of it; however, after bearing several wars, it has been damaged and renovated several times. It was partially destroyed by the Mamluks when they took over the city from the Crusaders, but they subsequently rebuilt it and added the lo ...
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Mseilha Fort
The Mseilha Fort ( ar, قلعة المسيلحة, Qal‘at al-Msaylḥa) is a fortification situated north of the village of Hamat in Lebanon. The current fort was built by Emir Fakhreddine II in the 17th century to guard the route from Tripoli to Beirut. The fort is built on a long, narrow limestone rock near the Nahr el-Jawz River. Its walls are constructed with small sandstone blocks quarried from the nearby coast and built onto the edge of the limestone rock. The thickness of the walls ranges from 1.5 to 2 meters (4 to 6.5 feet). The larger limestone blocks are the only remains of an earlier structure probably built for the same defensive reason. Architecture and Layout The fort's architectural design consists of two homogenous sections built in two separate phases. The fort is approached through a narrow path and small stairway cut into the northern side of the bedrock. A small platform precedes the low arched main gate, secured by two loopholes and a small opening i ...
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Moussa Castle
Moussa Castle is a castle between Deir el Qamar and Beit ed-Dine in Lebanon. The 3,500 sq m (37,673 sq ft) castle was built by Moussa Abdel Karim Al Maamari, and was opened to the public in 1969. History It is the life work of a Lebanese visionary, requiring 60 years of dedicated hard-work to finish. Moussa's castle was built on a hill between Deir El Kamar and Beiteddine - Lebanon, with the beliefs and ideas of its builder engraved on its stones. The castle was built by Moussa Abdel Karim Al Maamari who was born on July 27, 1931, in the village of Harat Al Saraya - Lebanon and died January 31, 2018, in the village Deir El Qamar. His idea of building a castle began when he was only 14 years old, inspired by the Middle Ages. Ridiculed by his teacher "Anwar" and mocked by his classmates, he left school and travelled to Saida on foot where he worked with his uncle on restoring Saida's fortress. He was later assigned by the Emir Maurice Chehab to renovate the castles and to ...
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Byblos Castle
Byblos Castle is a Crusader castle in Byblos, Lebanon. In Crusader times it was known as the Castle of Gibelet , also spelled Giblet, which belonged to the Genoese Embriaco family, Lords of the city. It is adjacent to the Phoenician archaeological site containing the ruins of the Temple of Baalat Gebal and the Temple of the Obelisks. History The castle was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century from indigenous limestone and the remains of Roman structures. The finished structure was surrounded by a moat. It belonged to the Genoese Embriaco family, whose members were the Lords of Gibelet from 1100 to the late 13th century. Saladin captured the town and castle in 1188 and partially dismantled the walls in 1190. Later, the Crusaders recaptured Byblos and rebuilt the fortifications of the castle in 1197. In 1369, the castle had to fend off an attack from Cypriot vessels from Famagusta. The Byblos Castle has distinguished historical buildings for neighbors. Nearby stand a few ...
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Beaufort Castle, Lebanon
Beaufort or Belfort Castle, known locally as Qal'at al-Shaqif ( ar, قلعة الشقيف, Qalʾāt al-Shaqīf) or Shaqif Arnun, is a Crusader fortress in Nabatieh Governorate, Southern Lebanon, about to the south-south-east of the village of Arnoun. There was a fortification on the site before it was captured by Fulk, King of Jerusalem, in 1139 and construction of the Crusader castle probably began soon after. Saladin captured Beaufort in 1190, but 60 years later Crusaders re-took it. In 1268 Sultan Baibars finally captured the castle for the Islamic forces. Beaufort provides one of the few cases in which a medieval castle proved of military value and utility in modern warfare as well, as its late 20th-century history shows. Name The castle was named ''bel fort'' or ''beau fort'' ( French for "beautiful fortress") by the Crusaders who occupied the castle in the 12th century. Its Arabic name ''Qala'at al-Shaqif'' means "Castle of the High Rock" (''shqif'' is the Aramaic wor ...
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Tebnine Castle
Tebnine ( ar, تبنين ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnine'') is a Lebanese town spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about east of Tyre (Lebanon), in the heart of what is known as "'' Jabal Amel''" or the mountain of "Amel". "''Jabal Amel''" designates the plateau situated between the western mountain range of Lebanon and the Galilee.See map History Ancient history Scholars have identified Tebnine as the town of Tafnis (תפניס) mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as a northern border of the kingdom of Judah. Frankish chronicler Guillaume De Tyr ( William of Tyre) refers to the town as ''Tibénin'' (..''nomen priscum Tibénin''..), which might be an indication that the town existed long before the Crusaders set foot in Syria. Many of the existing families of Tibnine have a background makeup of Phoenician, European and Arab due to ranging influences in the region over centu ...
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Castle Of Tyre
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ...
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Citadel Of Raymond De Saint-Gilles
Qala'at Tarablus in Arabic, is an ancient citadel and fort on a hilltop in Tripoli, Lebanon. Once known as The Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles or Qala'at Sanjil and also as Mons Peregrinus ("Pilgrim's Mountain"), it takes its name from Raymond of Saint-Gilles, a Crusader commander who was a key player in its enlargement. It is a common misconception that he was responsible for its construction when in 1103 he laid siege to the city. In fact in the early 19th century, the citadel was extensively restored and rebuilt by the Ottoman governor of Tripoli Mustafa Agha Barbar and in consequence very little of the original Crusader structure has survived until this day. History The citadel of Tripoli was enlarged by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, governor of Tripoli, in 1103 on the emplacement of the castle of Saint-Gilles. When the Mont Pèlerin quarter was set ablaze by the Mamluks after the reconquest, the castle of Saint-Gilles suffered from the holocaust and stood abandoned on the hillt ...
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Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ...
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