Lebanon -- School-age

Lebanon

Official Name: The Republic of Lebanon

Government Type: Parliamentary Democratic Republic

Capital: Beirut

County's inhabitants: Lebanese

Abbreviation: LB, LBN

Official Language: The official language of Lebanon is Arabic. English and French languages are also used.

Religion: Lebanon is the only Middle Eastern country without a majority religion.
31.9% Sunni Muslim, 31.2% Shia Muslim, and smaller percentages of Alawites and Ismailis. Christian 32.4%, Druze 4.5%, very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, and Hindus.

Population: 5.33 million (2023)

Ethnic Groups: Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%. Many Christian Lebanese identify as descendants of the ancient Canaanites and prefer to be called Phoenicians.

Lebanon is located in the Middle East along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea bordered by Israel on the south and Syria on the northeast.

Brief History of Lebanon Video

History

Lebanon is one of the world's oldest countries. It is a small country located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon is about 946 times smaller than the United States. It has a total area of 10,400 square kilometers (4,014 square miles).

Around 3,500 BC., this country became home of the Phoenicians, a seafaring civilization that established a trade network. The Phoenician ports of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos were dominate centers of trade and are the sites of some of the oldest human settlements in the world.

Over the centuries, Lebanon has been ruled by: Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantined, Ottoman Turks, and France before achieving independence in 1943.

Lebanon's history makes a country with a diverse population with diverse religious and ethnic groups. After independence tension increased between different groups. The country has been plagued by conflicts and civil war (1975-1990), most of them over religion. The civil war ended in 1990, but violence continues in Lebanon. In southern Lebanon violence continues between the terrorist group Hezbollah and Israel forces.

The Phoenicians Video

Government

Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy in which high-ranking offices are reserved for members of specific religious groups. The head of state, the President, is required to be a Maritnite Christian. The Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim. The Speaker of the Parliament must be a Shia Muslim. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Deputy Speaker must be of Parliament Eastern Orthodox.

Lebanon's legislature is an unicameral (one chamber) Parliament. The government 128 parliamentary seats are divided equally between Christians and Muslims. This system is intended to uphold a power equilibrium with the main religious groups in Lebanon. Sometimes it results in political paralysis.

Flag of Lebanon

The flag of Lebanon has a white field with two horizontal red strips at the top and bottom. The white stipe has a green cedar tree at the center.

The cedar tree is the national symbol of Lebanon.

Land

Lebanon is mostly a mountainous country separated by the fertile Bekaa Valley. The Lebanon Mountains are central and west, while the Anti-Lebanon Mountains stretch across its eastern border with Syria. A narrow coastal strip of land fronts the Mediterranean Sea.

Mount Lebanon mountain range in Lebanon highest peak is 3,088 m (10,131 ft).

Climate

The climate is Mediterranean with wet winters and hot dry summers. Lebanon mountains experience heavy winter snows.

Plants

Lebanon's forests of cedar trees were famed in antiquity, but intensive logging over the centuries has reduced the forests to a fraction of their former size.

Originally, cedars forests dominated all parts of the mountains. Where tall cedar trees have been cut down and woodland destroyed, scrub has taken over; in the Lebanon Mountain area is mostly flowering trees and oak, and in the Anti-Lebanon range the scrub is mostly small trees.

Cedar Trees Lebanon
Cedar Trees

There are a large number of flowering plants, ferns and mosses growing in Lebanon. Native to the country is the endangered Lebanon violet, found high up in shrubland on the west side of Mount Lebanon.

Animals

The National animal of Lebanon is the striped hyena.

In cultivated fields are found the blind mole-rat and Gunther's vole. Some of the animals in the mountains are: boars, gray wolves, golden jackals, roe deer, and Nubian ibex. On the coast are found bats, badgers, lizards, and mice.

10 Animals Found In Lebanon