Lebanon is a fascinating, complex little country (120 miles long by 30-35 miles wide). It is full of history and interesting sites --- magnificent ruins, the famous Cedars of Lebanon, modern cities and aged villages. There are long sandy beaches and high snow-capped mountains. It is the biblical land of milk and honey, lush with orange and olive groves, banana plantations, wild flowers and crystal-clear rivers gushing from hidden grottos.

 

Lebanon lies along the eastern Mediterranean shore. It is about two-thirds the size of Connecticut, and is bordered on the north and east by Syria. It was once part of the Ottoman Satrap of Greater Syria. On the south it is bordered by Israel. The western border is the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea. In the central part of the country, the Lebanon Mountains run from the north to the south. On the eastern side of these mountains is the broad Bekaa Valley, which is protected on the east by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The headwaters for the Litani River and the Orontes River, which flows into Syria, are in the Lebanon Mountains. The famous Mount Hermon (Jabal Al-Shaykh) lies on the southeast border.

 

Lebanon has been host to many religions and people of differing ethnic backgrounds throughout the ages. The first identifiable inhabitants were the Canaanites, a Semitic people who came to be known as the Phoenicians. These people were seafarers and traders who flourished in the second and early first millennia BC from the city-states at Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. The Phoenicians founded settlements at Carthage, Marseilles, Palermo, Malta, and Sardinia. There is evidence that they sailed around Africa and may have gone as far as...