Lebanon Map

About Lebanon

Lebanon is a small, mountainous country on the eastern Mediterranean, about 10,452 square kilometers in area: about 215 km from north to south and no more than about 85 km wide. Syria surrounds it to the north and east, and Israel lies to the south, along a line that has never been formally agreed; since 2000 the UN-drawn Blue Line has served as the working boundary. About 5.8 million people live here (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate), a total that includes a large population of Syrian refugees. Lebanon is divided into nine governorates (muhafazat), the newest, Keserwan-Jbeil, created in 2017.

Two ranges and a valley

Lebanon's map is easy to read: four strips running parallel to the coast.

• The coastal plain - narrow and densely built, holding Beirut, Tripoli, Byblos (Jbeil), Sidon and Tyre
• Mount Lebanon - the western range, rising to Qurnat as Sawda' (3,088 m), the country's highest point, above the Qadisha Valley; its snow gave the country its name, from a Semitic root meaning "white"
• The Beqaa Valley - a high plain about 900-1,000 m above sea level, part of the Great Rift system, where the Litani rises before turning west to the sea north of Tyre, and the Orontes rises before flowing north into Syria
• The Anti-Lebanon - the eastern range along the Syrian border, ending in the south at Mount Hermon

The famous cedars survive only in scattered groves, the best known being the Forest of the Cedars of God at Bsharri, listed by UNESCO with the Qadisha Valley and its rock-cut monasteries. Near Beirut, the Jeita Grotto is a system of limestone caves carved by an underground river.

Seasons and getting around

The coast has hot, humid summers and mild, rainy winters; nearly all the rain falls between November and March. The mountains are much cooler, and snow from December to March supports ski resorts such as Mzaar Faraya and The Cedars, less than two hours from the beach. The Beqaa is drier, hot in summer and cold in winter. Spring (April-June) and autumn (September-October) are the best times to travel. There is no working railway; Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is the only commercial airport, and travel is by road along the coastal highway and over the mountain passes to the Beqaa.

Major Cities

• Beirut - The capital and main port, a banking, publishing and university center; the port explosion of 4 August 2020 killed more than 200 people and wrecked large parts of the city's east side
• Tripoli - The second city, in the north, with the largest collection of Mamluk-era buildings in the country and the Rachid Karami International Fair by Oscar Niemeyer, added to UNESCO's list in 2023
• Sidon (Saida) - A Phoenician port south of Beirut, known for its Crusader sea castle and old souqs
• Tyre (Sour) - The southern Phoenician city whose Roman ruins and hippodrome are a UNESCO site
• Zahle - The largest town of the Beqaa, center of Lebanon's wine country
• Baalbek - In the northern Beqaa, home to the colossal Roman temples of Heliopolis

Mandate, confession and crisis

The Phoenician ports of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre traded across the Mediterranean in the first millennium BCE, and the Phoenician alphabet, the ancestor of the Greek and Latin alphabets, spread from this coast. Mount Lebanon had its own autonomous status within the Ottoman Empire from 1861. In 1920 France created Greater Lebanon by adding the coast and the Beqaa to Mount Lebanon, and the country became independent in 1943. Its confessional system shares power by religion: by convention the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. Arabic is the official language, and French and English are widely used. The 1975-1990 civil war was followed by Syrian military presence until 2005, and Israel occupied a zone in the south until 2000.

Since 2019 Lebanon has gone through a deep financial collapse in which the Lebanese pound lost most of its value. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that began in October 2023 escalated in September 2024 into an Israeli air campaign and ground invasion, ended by a ceasefire on 27 November 2024. In January 2025 parliament elected army commander Joseph Aoun as president, ending a vacancy of more than two years, and Nawaf Salam became prime minister. War resumed on 2 March 2026, two days after the US-Israeli war with Iran began, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel; Israel responded with air strikes and a ground offensive in the south. A temporary ceasefire has been in place since 16 April 2026, but Israeli strikes continue and Israeli forces still hold parts of southern Lebanon, and direct Lebanon-Israel talks resumed in October 2026. Parliament postponed the elections due in May 2026 until 2028.