Well watered, fertile and with a moderate climate, the country’s main resources are its energetic people and its outstanding natural beauty.

Lebanon lies at the intersection of three continents, facing West but open to the East. For over 6 000 years it has the passage of traders, invading armies and civilizations, each of which left its mark.

Tyr resisted Alexander the Great and built Carthage, the pearl of Africa, in what is now Tunisia.

The Phoenician alphabet, mother of today’s Latin alphabet, is said to have spread to Greece from Tyre.

Qana hosted Jesus Christ and witnessed one of his principal miracles.

Sidon set itself on fire to avoid surrendering and today is once again an important seaport.

The Bekaa valley, a fascinating area, crossed by many caravan and invasion routes retains numerous traces of its long history.

Today thousands of ancient sites cover the land-most of them yielding important museum-quality artefacts.

The situation of Lebanon and its physical aspect have had a great influence on its history and on its economic, cultural, and social life.

With its situation on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, it has become an outlet for the meeting place for people and influences coming from the Asiatic main-land in the east, and European countries in the east.