The Sidon District ( ar, قضاء صيدا) is a district within the

South Governorate South Governorate ( ar, الجنوب; transliterated: al-Janub) is one of the governorates of Lebanon. South Lebanon has a population of 500,000 inhabitants and an area of 929.6 km2. The capital is Sidon. The lowest elevation is sea-level ...

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 ...

Cities and towns

Aadloun Aadloun, Adloun or Adlun ( ar, عدلون) is a coastal town in South Lebanon, south of Sidon famous for its cultivation of watermelons. It is also the site of a Phoenician necropolis and prehistoric caves where four archaeological sites have ...

* Ansariye *

Ghaziyeh Ghazieh ( ar, الغازية) is a town in South Lebanon, 4 kilometres south of Saida, (Sidon). It has an area of about 15sq km. Ghazieh is one of the largest businesses hubs in South Lebanon and it houses a large fuel refinery (TapLine). Ghazie ...

Maghdouché Maghdouché ( ar, مغدوشة, , ) is a town in the South Governorate of Lebanon. It is located 50 km south of Beirut and 8 km southeast of Sidon. The village lies 3 km inland from the Mediterranean, occupying a hill with elev ...

* Majdelyoun *

Miye ou Miye Miye ou Miye ( ar, المية ومية, ) is a village in southern Lebanon located 5 km (3.2 mi) East of Sidon and 45 km (28 mi) south of the capital Beirut and it overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. The village lies at an avera ...

* Qinarit * Salhieh *

Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titular ...

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

- capital * Tabbaya *

Zrarieh Zrarieh is a town in southern Lebanon, located in the Sidon District. It is home to about 20,000 people, over half of whom are emigrants to West Africa, Europe and the Americas. The etymology of "Zrarieh" is derived from the Aramaic word for rose ...

* Kawthariyat al-Sayyad

Villages

* Ain El Delb * Anqoun * Darb Es Sim * Hajjeh *

Kfar Chellal Kfar Chellal ( ar, كفرشلال) is a village located in the Sidon District of the South Governorate in Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a cou ...

* Kfar Hatta * Qraiye *

Tanbourit Tanbourit ( ar, طنبوريت) is a village in the Sidon District of the South Governorate in Lebanon. It is located from Beirut. History In 1875 Victor Guérin traveled in the region, and noted the village Tanbourit "beyond a ravine". The in ...

* Zaita *

Zaghdraiya Zaghdraiya (also Zeghdrâya, Zoghedraya, Zghedraia. Arabic: زغدرايا) is a town in the South Governorate in Lebanon. It is located southeast of Sidon. The village is bordered with a number of villages/towns like Darb es Sim, Maghdouche, Mi ...

Oil and petroleum

Sidon serves as the Mediterranean terminus of the

Trans-Arabian Pipeline The Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline), was an oil pipeline from Qaisumah in Saudi Arabia to Sidon in Lebanon, active between 1950–1976. In its heyday, it was an important factor in the global trade of petroleum, as well as in American–Middle ...

, a long oil pipeline that pumps oil from the fields near Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia. The pipeline played an important role in the global trade of petroleum—helping with the economic development of

—as well as American and Middle Eastern political relations. At the time it was built in 1947, the project was considered ground-breaking and innovative with a maximum capacity of about . After the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

and due to constant bickering between Saudi Arabia and Syria and Lebanon over transit fees, the emergence of oil supertankers and pipeline breakdowns, the section of the line beyond Jordan ceased operation in 1976. The city of Sidon is the site of a large-scale oil facility constituting oil-storage tanks, an oil refinery, a thermal power plant and a fuel port. During the

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

and the Israeli invasions, the site was bombarded several times either by Israeli war-planes or by Palestinian militia groups which lead eventually to the closure of the site. The oil tank and the refinery are in severe conditions but are now undergoing a massive rehabilitation plan put down by the Ministry of Power and Water Resources, as well as those in Tripoli in the north, to store Lebanon's future oil and natural gas supplies recently discovered offshore. For now, the facilities that still work on the site are the thermal power plant and the fuel port, which the state began to use to import oil after the pipeline ceased work in the 1970s.

Demographics

According to voter registration data, voters in the district are mostly Muslim (83%). Voters in the city of Saida (61237) are 94% Muslim: * 84% are Sunni * 9% are Shia * 6% are Christian (mixed between Maronite, Greek Melkite Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox). Voters in the rest of the district (112372, called the Zahrani constituency in the 2018 electoral law) are predominantly Shia and 77% Muslim: * 74% are Shia * 3% are Sunni * 12% are Greek Melkite Catholic * 10% are Maronite Thus, there is a bigger percentage of Christian voters in the district of Saida (17%) than in Tyre (6.3%), but much less than in Jezzine (75%).

References

{{Sidon District Districts of Lebanon