Lebanon country profile pdf Continue (Arabic) اﻟﺠﻤﻬﻮرﻳﺔ اﻟﻠﺒﻨﺎﻧﻴﺔCountry in the Middle East This article is about the country. For other applications Lebanon, see Lebanon (disambiguation), Liban (disambiguation), and Libnan (disambiguation). Coordinates: 33'50'N 35'50'E / 33.833'N 35.833'E / 33.833; 35.833 Lebanese Republic Arabic) Kullun' li-l-wa'an All of us! For our country! (English) Capitals largest city Bayruth3'54'N 35'32'E / 33.900'N 35.533'E / 33.900; 35.533Official languagesArabic[nb 1]Local vernacularLebanese Arabic[nb 2]Religion 61.1%) ﻛﻠّﻨﺎ ﻟﻠﻮﻃﻦ :al-Jumharaha al-Lubnani Flag Herb Anthem Muslim33.7% Christian5.2% Druze[1]Demonym(s)LebaneseGovernmentUnitary parliamentary confessionalist constitutional republic[2]• President Michel Aoun• Prime Minister Hassan Diab• Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri LegislatureParliamentEstablishment• Greater Lebanon 1 September 1920• Constitution 23 May 1926• Independence declared 22 November 1943• French mandate ended 24 October 1945• Withdrawal of French forces 17 April 1946• Syrian and Israeli occupations 1976–2005• Israeli troops withdrawn 24 May 2000• Syrian troops withdrawn 30 April 2005 Area • Total10,452 km2 (4,036 sq mi) (161st)• Water (%)1.8Population• 2018 estimate6,859,408[3][4] (109th)• Density560/km2 (1,450.4/sq mi) (21st)GDP (PPP)2019 estimate• Total$91 billion[5]• Per capita$15,049[5] (66th)GDP (nominal)2019 estimate• Total$58 billion[5] (82nd)• Per capita$9,655[5]Gini 50.7highHDI (2018) 0.730[6]high · 93rdCurrencyLebanese pound (LBP)Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)• Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)Driving sideright [7]Calling code+961[8]ISO 3166 codeLBInternet TLD.lb Lebanon (/ ˈlɛbənɒn, -hun/ (listen); Arabic: Romanticized: romanticized: al-Jumhara al-Lubnan, Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: lˈʒʊmhuːrijje lˈlɪbneːnijje; French: Republic libanaise or widely mentioned among residents in ,اﻟﺠﻤﻬﻮرﻳﺔ اﻟﻠﺒﻨﺎﻧﻴﺔ :Lubnin, Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: lɪbˈneːn),), officially known as the Republic of Lebanon (Arabic French: Liban), is a Middle Eastern country in West Asia. It borders Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is located in the west across the Mediterranean. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arab hinterland contributed to its rich history and shaped the cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2 (4,036 miles2) it is the smallest recognized sovereign state on the continent of continental Asia. (nb 4) The official language, Lebanese Arabic, is the most spoken language spoken by Lebanese citizens. (nb 5) The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back to more than thousands of years, pre-preparing a recorded history. Lebanon was home to the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for nearly three thousand years (about 3200-539 BC). In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire and eventually became one of its leading centers of Christianity. The mountain range of Lebanon saw the emergence of a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church. When Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held on to their religion and identity. However, a new religious group, the Druze, has also established itself on Mount Lebanon, creating a religious schism that lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites made contact with the Roman Catholic Church and established their communication with Rome. These ties have influenced the region in the modern era. Lebanon was conquered by the Ottomans in the 16th century and remained under their rule for the next 400 years. After the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that make up modern Lebanon came under the French mandate. The French expanded the boundaries of Mount Lebanon, which was predominantly Maronite and Druze, including more Muslims. After independence in 1943, Lebanon established a unique confessional form of government, with the main religious sects singing specific political forces. President Bechara El Khoury, Prime Minister Riad el-Solh, and Defense Minister Emir Majid Arslan II are considered founders of modern Lebanon and national heroes for their role in independence. Lebanon initially enjoyed political and economic stability, which was shattered by the bloody civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990) between various political and sectarian groups. The war partly led to military occupations in Syria (from 1975 to 2005) and Israel (from 1985 to 2000). Despite Lebanon's small size, Lebanese culture is known both in the Arab world and around the world, fed by its large and influential diaspora. Before the civil war, the country had a diversified economy that included tourism, agriculture, trade and banking. Its financial strength and stability in the 1950s and 1960s brought Lebanon the name Switzerland of the East, while its capital, Beirut, attracted so many tourists that it was known as the Paris of the Middle East. Since the end of the war, considerable efforts have been made to revitalize the economy and restore national infrastructure. Although Lebanon is still recovering from the political and economic consequences of the conflict, it remains a cosmopolitan and developing country with the highest index of human development and GDP per capita in the Arab world outside the oil-rich economies of the Persian Gulf. Lebanon was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and is a member of the Arab League (1945), The Non-Aligned Movement (1961), the Organization of the Organization Islamic Cooperation (1969) and the International Organization of Francophonie (1973). The etymology of the name of Mount Lebanon comes from the Phoenician root of the lbn (), which means white, presumably from its snow-covered peaks. Cases of the name were found in various Middle Bronze Age texts from the Ebla Library, and three of the twelve tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic. The name is written in ancient Egyptian as Rmnn (), where R stood ﻣﺘﺼﺮﻓﻴﺔ ﺟﺒﻞ . :Lebanon as the name of the administrative unit (as opposed to the mountain range), which was introduced with the Ottoman reforms of 1861, as Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifat (Arabic . ְל ָבנוֹן for Canaanite L. the name occurs almost 70 times in the Jewish Bible, as . دوﻟﺔ اﻟﻜﺒﻴﺮ . French: Stat du Grand Liban) in 1920, and ultimately in the name of the sovereign Republic of Lebanon al-Jumharaya al-Lubnaya) after independence in 1943. Story Home article: The History of Lebanon This section needs additional quotes to verify. Please help improve this article by adding quotes to reliable sources. Non-sources of materials can be challenged and اﻟﺠﻤﻬﻮرﻳﺔ اﻟﻠﺒﻨﺎﻧﻴﺔ :Arabic) removed. Find sources: Lebanon - News newspaper book scientist JSTOR (November 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message template) The borders of modern Lebanon are a product of the 1920 Sevres Treaty. Its territory was the nucleus of the Phoenician (Canaan) city- state of the Bronze Age. As part of the Levant, it was part of numerous successive empires throughout ancient history, including the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Ahemenid Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Sasanid Persian empires. After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, it was part of the empires of Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid Seljuk and Fatimid. The Crusader state of Tripoli, founded by Raymond IV of Toulouse in 1102, covered much of present-day Lebanon, falling to the Sultanate of Mamluk in 1289 and finally to the Ottoman Empire in 1516. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon came under a French mandate in 1920 and gained independence under President Bechara El Khoury in 1943. Lebanon's history since independence has been marked by interspersed periods of political stability and prosperity, based on Beirut's position as a regional center of finance and trade, interspersed with political upheaval and armed conflict (1948 Arab-Israeli war, The Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990, 2005 Cedar 2006 Lebanese war, 2007 Lebanon conflict, 2006-08 Lebanese protests, 2008 conflict in Lebanon, 2011 Syrian civil war and lebanese protests in 2019-2020). Ancient Lebanon Home article: The History of Ancient Lebanon Map of Phoenicia and Trade Path Evidence, dating from an early settlement in Lebanon was found in Byblos, considered one of the oldest permanently inhabited cities in the world. The evidence dates back to an earlier 5000 BC. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of prehistoric huts with shredded limestone floors, primitive weapons and burial jars left by neolithic and Halkolite fishing communities that lived on the shores of the Mediterranean more than 7,000 years ago. Lebanon was part of northern Canaan, and therefore became the birthplace of descendants of The Canaanites, Phoenicians, navigators, which spread across the Mediterranean Sea in the first millennium BC. The most famous Phoenician cities were Biblos, Sidon and Tyre, while their most famous colonies were Carthage in present-day Tunisia and Cadiz in modern Spain. The Phoenicians attribute the invention of the oldest proven alphabet, which later inspired the Greek alphabet and Latin. The cities of Phoenicia were incorporated into the Persian Empire of the Achemenids by Cyrus the Great in 539. B.C. Phoenician city-states were later incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great after the siege of Tyre in 332 BC Maronites, drubbing and crusades The fall of Tripoli to the Egyptian Mamluks and the destruction of the Crusader state, the county of Tripoli, 1289 Region, which is now Lebanon, like the rest of Syria and much of Anatolia , became a major center of Christianity in the Roman Empire during the early spread of the faith. In the late 4th and early 5th century, a hermit named Maron founded a monastic tradition focused on the importance of monotheism and asceticism, not far from the Mediterranean mountain range known as Mount Lebanon. The monks who followed Maron spread his teachings to the Lebanese in the region. These Christians were known as Maronites and moved to the mountains to escape religious persecution by the Roman authorities.