Mount Lebanon

Coordinates: 34°18′N 36°07′E / 34.300°N 36.117°E / 34.300; 36.117
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Lebanon Mountains
)
For other uses, see Mount Lebanon (disambiguation).
Mount Lebanon
جبل لبنان
Mount Lebanon in the Bsharri District
Highest point
PeakQurnat as Sawda'
Elevation3,088 m (10,131 ft)
Coordinates34°18′N 36°07′E / 34.300°N 36.117°E / 34.300; 36.117
Geography
Mount Lebanon is located in Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Climbing
Easiest routeScramble

Mount Lebanon (

Arabic: جَبَل لُبْنَان, jabal lubnān, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʒabal lɪbˈneːn]; Syriac: ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ṭūr leḇnān, Syriac pronunciation: [tˤur lewˈnɔn], ṭūr lewnōn) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about 170 km (110 mi) long[1] and averages above 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation, with its peak at 3,088 m (10,131 ft). The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round.[2]

Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, home to surviving Lebanese cedar forests and diverse high-altitude flora and fauna. The name Lebanon itself originates from the white, snow-covered tops of this mountain range.[3]

Geography

The Mount Lebanon range extends along the entire country for about 170 km (110 mi), parallel to the Mediterranean coast.[1] Their highest peak is Qurnat as Sawda', at 3,088 m (10,131 ft). The range receives a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around 4 m (13 ft) in depth.[1]

Lebanon has historically been defined by the mountains, which provided protection for the local population. In Lebanon, changes in scenery are related less to geographical distances than to altitudes. The mountains were known for their oak and pine forests. The last remaining old growth groves of the famous Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani var. libanii) are on the high slopes of Mount Lebanon, in the Cedars of God World Heritage Site.

The Phoenicians used the forests from Mount Lebanon to build their ship fleet and to trade with their neighbors. Phoenicians and successor rulers consistently replanted and restocked the range; even as late as the 16th century, its forested area was considerable.[4]

Etymology

The name Mount Lebanon traces back to the Semitic root LBN, meaning "white", likely a reference to the snow-covered mountains.[5]

History

Fakhreddine Mosque, in Deir al-Qamar, was built in 1493.

Mount Lebanon is mentioned in the

King Hiram I of Tyre sent engineers with cedar wood which was abundant in Mount Lebanon, to build the Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Since then, the cedar species known scientifically as Cedrus libani is often associated with Mount Lebanon. The Phoenicians used cedar to build ships in which they sailed the Mediterranean, thus they were the first to establish villages in Mount Lebanon and would live from cutting down cedars and sending them to the coast.[4]

Eusebius records that the Emperor Constantine destroyed a temple of Venus 'on the summit of Mount Lebanon.'[6] After the 5th century AD, Christian monks who were followers of a hermit named

Mamelukes settled in the Northern part of Lebanon and become part of the Maronite society.[9]

Mount Lebanon was visited and called home by many

Bekaa valley, becoming a small minority in Mount Lebanon by the 19th century.[13][14]

In the 9th century, tribes from the "Jabal el Summaq" area north of

Chouf. In an effort to re-populate the Chouf after the 1585 Ottoman expedition, Fakhreddine opened the door to Christians and in particular the Maronite settlement of the Chouf and Metn.[4]

Snow on Mount Lebanon

Throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century more and more Maronites settled in the Druze regions of the Mount. The Druze viewed these Maronite settlements as a threat to their power in Mount Lebanon and in a series of clashes in the 1840s and 1860s, a miniature civil war erupted in the area resulting in the massacre of thousands of Christians.[15] The Druze won militarily, but not politically, because European powers (mainly France and Britain) intervened on behalf of the Maronites and divided Mount Lebanon into two areas; Druze and Maronite. Seeing their authority decline in Mount Lebanon, a few Lebanese Druze began migrating to the new Jabal ad-Duruz in southern Syria. In 1861, the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.[4]

For centuries, the Maronites of the region have been protected by the noble

Fakhr-al-Din II and Younès al-Maani.[16][17][18] The Khazen crest reflects the family's special closeness to Mount Lebanon, with snowy mountains and a cedar tree depicted.[16][19][20]

Political term

See also:
Mount Lebanon Emirate
Armed men from Mount Lebanon, late 19th century.

Mount Lebanon also lent its name to two political designations: a

Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[21]

For decades, the Christians pressured the European powers to award them

First World War, France took hold of the formerly Ottoman holdings in the northern Levant, and expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon in 1920 to form Greater Lebanon, which was to be populated by remnants of the Middle Eastern Christian community. The Christians ended up gaining territorially, but the new borders merely ended the demographic dominance of Christians in the newly-created territory of Lebanon.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Jin and Krothe. Hydrogeology: Proceedings of the 30th International Geological Congress, p. 170
  2. ISBN 9780816072293
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-5381-2043-9
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-520-20086-1
  5. ISBN 978-0-7864-2248-7
    .
  6. ^ Eusebius 'Life of Constantine' III.54
  7. ^ Butler, Alban (1821). "St. Abraames, Bishop of Carres". The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints. Vol. II. p. 154.
  8. ^ Hitti, Philip (1957). Lebanon in History. India: Macmillan and Co Ltd. p. 246.
  9. ^ Hitti, Philip (1957). Lebanon in History. India: Macmillan and Co Ltd. p. 319.
  10. ^ Sader, Hanna (27 April 2019). The Biography of Muslim Sufis in Mount Lebanon from the 7th to 14th centuries.
  11. ISBN 9780195181111
    .
  12. ISBN 9781139486811
    .
  13. ISBN 9781139486811
    .
  14. ^ Hamade, Saadoun (2008). History of Shiites in Lebanon (in Arabic).
  15. ^ United Nations Decade on Human Rights Education, 1995-2005
  16. ^ a b The sword of the Maronite Prince. Khazen.org.
  17. ^ Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title. Khazen.org.
  18. ^ An Interview with Cheikh Malek el-Khazen. CatholicAnalysis.org. Published: 28 July 2014.
  19. ^ The Khazen Crest Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine (image).
  20. ^ LES KHAZEN CONSULS DE FRANCE. Khazen.org. (English Translation)
  21. ISBN 9780817916664
    . the Maronites and the Druze, who founded Lebanon in the early eighteenth century.

External links
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