Jounieh ( ar, جونيه, or ''Juniya'', ) is a coastal city in
Keserwan District, about north of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
. Since 2017, it has been the capital of
Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate. Jounieh is known for its seaside resorts and bustling nightlife, as well as its old stone
souk
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...
, ferry port, paragliding site and
gondola lift
A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...
(''le
téléphérique
An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...
''), which takes passengers up the mountain to the shrine of
Our Lady of Lebanon in
Harissa.
Above Jounieh, and on the way to
Harissa, a small hill named
Bkerké
Bkerké (Arabic: بْكِرْكِي, also Bkerke or Bkirki) is the episcopal see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, located 650 m above the bay of Jounieh, northeast of Beirut, in Lebanon.
Though ...
( ar, بكركي, links=no, or ''Bkerki''), overlooking the Jounieh bay, is the seat of the Patriarch of the
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
Catholic Church of Lebanon. Residents of Jounieh and the surrounding towns are overwhelmingly
Maronite Catholics. Maameltein is a district of the city.
History
![Paragliding take-off](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Paragliding_take-off.png)
The medieval Muslim historian
al-Idrisi (d. 1165) notes that Jounieh was a sea fortress whose inhabitants were
Jacobite Christians. The Syrian geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1226) called it a dependency of
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
.
In the sixth part of ''The Introduction to Jounieh in the Mid Nineteenth Century'', Professor
Butrus Al-Boustani said: “Jounieh is a place on the
Keserwan coast which has warehouses, stores, and a dye house. Ships and boats bring supplies and its
grain trade
The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...
is very popular. Thus a district of the following villages: Sarba, Ghadir, and Harat Sakhr was named for it. Its total population is 2,500. Jounieh itself is not a residential area but mainly a commercial district whose workers come from neighboring towns.”
Ottoman Empire
Jounieh was connected with neighboring areas by roads built for carriages. So it was connected with
Bkerké
Bkerké (Arabic: بْكِرْكِي, also Bkerke or Bkirki) is the episcopal see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, located 650 m above the bay of Jounieh, northeast of Beirut, in Lebanon.
Though ...
and beyond it during the rule of Dawud Basha, the ruler of
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at .
Geography
The Mount Le ...
. It was connected to Ghazir between 1867 and 1868 despite the objection of Ghazir’s residents. Another road connected Jounieh to the Beirut Bridge during the rule of Rustum Basha. To the north it was connected by a carriage’s road until
Batroun during the rule of Wasa Basha (1883–1892). In 1892, Jounieh was connected to
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
via a railroad that had stations between the two locations, three of which in Jounieh and its environs: Sarba, Jounieh, and Mu’amilitain at the end of the line, which facilitated the transportation of goods and passengers from and to the Governorate of Beirut. In 1876, the number of shops exceeded 300, five silk factories, three rest houses, a mill, three juice factories, an artificial ice factory, a bank known by its owner's name "Bank Baghos", and a group of small sailboat construction sites.
In 1906, according to the ''Guide to Lebanon'' by Ibrahim Beik Al-Soud, the population of Jounieh was 2,400, and it had a silk factory owned by the Nasras, a silkworms choker owned by Moussa de Franj, a silk factory owned by the heirs of Rizkallah and Abdul Ahad Khadra which had 190 wheels and produced 10,000 cocoons, 330 domestic animals, and owned 80 carriages.
According to the records of the Keserwan Governorate, the town of Ghadir, in 1914, had 433 corporations and its population was 1,263. The town of Sarba had 213 commercial institutions and its population was 1,714. In Harat Sakhr, there were 165 corporations and its population was 808. In Sahil ‘Alma, there were 21 corporations its population reached 187. Jounieh had seen noticeable prosperity after France and the
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
Patriarchy supported the opening a port for commercial ships which became (with the Al-Nabi Younes Port on the
Chouf Coast) the official port of
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at .
Geography
The Mount Le ...
.
In 1913 and during the Mandate era, Jounieh suffered economic decline and recession as the French administration moved part of Jounieh’s administrative role to the Capital,
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
. Also Jounieh came out of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
weakened by famine and economic stagnation. So several of its inhabitants were forced to move to the capital or to immigrate, and Jounieh lost most of its expertise. Its social and population development stopped, and its economic development weakened. The 1932 statistics showed 1,286 housed in Jounieh: 371 in Sarba, 434 in Ghadir, 350 houses in Harat Sakhr, and 131 in Sahil ‘Alma. This affected the building industry and records in the town hall showed very limited number of permits given from 1922-1940. The only active sectors in that period were schools, small crafts, and planting of citrus trees, sugar cane, and vegetables. This situation stayed the same until the rule of President
Fuad Chehab who outfitted the city with all that it needed to become modern. Jounieh then awakened from its slumber with projects for roads, lighting, modern planning, a stadium, a tourist port, a government house, and infrastructure. President Chehab used a number of experts and engineers headed by the French engineer Ecochard. The talk became of “Monte Carlo of the East” and Jounieh stood out as a bride of the Lebanese coast. In 1959, it started to attract banks, the first which were the Lebanese Commerce Bank and the Lebanese Federal Bank. By 1975 the number of banks reached six and today there are 38 banks in addition to the Lebanese Central Bank which was established in 1879.
Modern history
![Night comes to life (8278992944)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Night_comes_to_life_%288278992944%29.jpg)
The area also witnessed an increase in the price of land from an average of seven to nine Lebanese pounds per square meter between 1950 and 1960 to an average of 25 to 35 Lebanese pounds in 1965.
The construction sector developed slowly starting from Sarba to Harat Sakhr, and finally the coast of ‘Alma. The buildings also started expanding around the city as the agricultural sector contracted and became confined to the coasts of
Kaslik and some orchards in Ghadir, Harat Sakhr and the coast of ‘Alma. In the beginning of the seventies, Jounieh was transformed to a major and complete tourist center with the tourist network around it and on its edges including:
Casino du Liban
Casino du Liban is a casino located in Maameltein, in Lebanon and is 22 km north of Beirut.
With an area of about 35,000 square meters, the casino has around 400 slot machines and 60 gaming tables. It has a showroom, night club, theater, ba ...
, the cable cars, the Harisa Church, the caverns in
Jeita
The is a Japanese trade organization for the electronics and IT industries. It was formed in 2000 from two earlier organizations, the Electronic Industries Association of Japan and the Japan Electronic Industries Development Association.
Histor ...
, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, and the port.
Lebanese Civil War
With the war of 1975, and the division of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
into East and West parts and the escalation of the violence, many people fled to safe areas and were organizing their lives in accordance with the new realities.
From 1980 to 1990, Jounieh witnessed a massive migration as a large number of the Beirut traders moved to its markets. Buildings took over its green spaces, and the tourist complexes took over its shores. So its features changed randomly though it benefited from the use of the tourist port for commerce.
During the Civil War the ferry making the 120 mile journey from Jounieh to
Larnica
Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 144 ...
was the only way to travel in and out of Lebanon for those living in the areas controlled by Christian militias. Over the fourteen years from 1975 an estimated 990,000 Lebanese left the country, up to 40% of the population.
During the 1989 fighting between
General Aoun and the
Lebanese Forces
The Lebanese Forces ( ar, القوات اللبنانية '')'' is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore th ...
10,000 civilians from Beirut arrived in Cyprus over a six week period. On 24 February 1990 the ferry was attacked by an unidentified naval patrol boat. One passenger was killed and seventeen wounded. In 1997 a
catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
was operating between Larnaca and Jounieh. A return ticket for the four-hour journey cost US$100. At the time the average monthly income in Lebanon was US$132.
Post Civil War
On 18 June 1991 six people were killed and 30 wounded after an explosion at a
Lebanese Forces
The Lebanese Forces ( ar, القوات اللبنانية '')'' is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore th ...
ammunition dump.
On 7 May 2005, a car bomb exploded between the Christian Sawt al Mahaba
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
and the Mar Yuhanna
Church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
in Jounieh. The radio station was destroyed and the church suffered major damage. Twenty-two people were wounded.
Today, close to 100,000 people reside in Jounieh. Those who live in its suburbs exceed that number. By the middle of the century, it is predicted that Jounieh will become a suburb of Beirut in a coastal line that forms one city that expands the length of the coastal road at a time when the inhabitants of Lebanon will reach six million plus around the year 2025. The population of Jounieh is majority
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
.
International relations
Jounieh is
twinned with:
*
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
*
Gustavia, Saint Barthelemy, France
*
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, Brazil
Climate
Jounieh has a
hot-summer Mediterranean climate (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Csa''). In winter there is much more rainfall than in summer. The average annual temperature in Jounieh is . About of precipitation falls annually.
Tourism
* Paragliding
Paragliding site in Ghosta, three minutes from Harissa. Since 1992, paragliding above Jounieh is considered one of the best outdoor activities in Lebanon.
* Jounieh International Festival
Every summer, Jounieh International Festival hosts national and international icons, like
Mika
Mika is a given name, a nickname and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
People known just as Mika
* Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr.
* Mika (footbal ...
,
Jessie J
Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind''. She studied ...
,
Imagine Dragons
Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band first gained exposure with the release of their sing ...
,
Jason Derulo
Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter. and many others.
![Harisa lebanon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Harisa_lebanon.jpg)
* Casino du Liban
Casino du Liban offers gaming and shows and is located in the northern part of Jounieh, it is also the biggest one in the Middle East.
* Lebanese Heritage Museum
Lebanese Heritage Museum displays items related to the culture and history of Lebanon.
* Téléphérique
The ''téléphérique'' is a
gondola lift
A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...
that operates between Jounieh and
Harissa. It offers the passengers beautiful panoramic views of the bay of Jounieh and the coast all the way to
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
.
[https://www.teleferiquelb.com/]
(See
Téléphérique de Jounieh page)
References
Bibliography
*
See also
*
Tourism in Lebanon
The tourism industry in Lebanon has been important to the local economy historically and to this day comprises a major source of revenue for the country. Before the Lebanese Civil War, Beirut was widely regarded as "''The Paris of the Middle Ea ...
*
Jounieh Municipal Stadium
Fouad Chehab Stadium ( ar, ملعب فؤاد شهاب), also known as Jounieh Municipal Stadium ( ar, ملعب جونية البلدي), is a multi-use stadium in Jounieh, Lebanon. It is currently used mostly for football
Football is a fa ...
{{Authority control
Greater Beirut
Populated places in Keserwan District
Mediterranean port cities and towns in Lebanon
Christian cities in Lebanon
Tourist attractions in Lebanon
Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon