Tayr Debba ( ar, طير دبّا) is a small town in the

Tyre District The Tyre District is a district in the South Governorate of Lebanon. History Ancient history Founded at the start of the third millennium BC, Tyre originally consisted of a mainland settlement and a modest island city that lay a short distance o ...

in 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 ...

, located 7 kilometres east of Tyre and 88 kilometers south 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 ...

. Its total land area consists of 578

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s and its average elevation is 200 meters above sea level. There are two schools, one public and the other private, in Tayr Debba which collectively enrolled a total of 607 students in 2006.

Name

According to

E. H. Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoo ...

, ''Teir Dubbeh'' means "the fortress of the bear".

History

In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it: "A village built of stone, containing 250

Metawileh Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...

, situated on a ridge surrounded by olives and fig-trees and arable land. There are three

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s in the village." Tayr Debba is the hometown of the

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

commander

Imad Mughniyeh Imad Fayez Mughniyeh ( ar, عماد فايز مغنية; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008), alias al-Hajj Radwan (), was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about ...

, who was assassinated in 2008.

Notable people

Mohamad Haidar Mohamad Faouzi Haidar ( ar, محمد فوزي حيدر, ; born 8 November 1989) is a Lebanese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger or Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder for cl ...

(born 1989), Lebanese footballer *

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 1
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Tyre District Populated places in Tyre District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon