Qaraoun

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Qaraoun
Village
Lake Qaraoun or Lake Litani, upstream of Qaraoun village in the Beqaa Valley in Lebabon
Lake Qaraoun or Lake Litani, upstream of Qaraoun village in the Beqaa Valley in Lebabon
Country Lebanon
GovernorateBeqaa Governorate
DistrictRashaya District
Area
 • Village5.64 sq mi (14.60 km2)
 • Land5.64 sq mi (14.60 km2)
 • Urban
1.4 sq mi (3.6 km2)
Elevation
2,600 ft (800 m)
Population
 • Village7,000

Qaraoun is a Lebanese village, 85 km from Beirut, known for its Lake Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley formed by the El Wauroun Dam built in 1959. It is an ecologically fragile zone in the Rashaya District south of the Beqaa Governorate.[1] The village lies about 2600 feet above sea level.[2] The dam is located nearby on the Litani River.[2]

Geography

The village is delimited by Majdel Balhis on the east, Aitanite on the west, Baaloul on the north and Sohmor on the south. The ecoregion of the village has now a land area of 1460 ha, with 1100 ha of it under agriculture including 400 ha under irrigation and the balance agricultural area is rainfed. When the El Qauroun Dam was built on the Litani River (the longest river in Lebanon) in 1959, Qaraoun village, lying on its left bank transferred an area of 740 ha for the development of the project. The ecoregions habitat composition is a delicate interface of dry lands with the riverine and lacustrine zones.[1]

Demographics, economy and development

The population of the village is around 7,000.[1]

The development activity near the village, consequent to land area the Qaraoun village transferred for building of the El Qaraoun Dam in the middle reaches of the Litani River, which created an artificial lake (33°34′11.63″N 35°41′51.18″E / 33.5698972°N 35.6975500°E / 33.5698972; 35.6975500) with water spread area of 1190 ha (the largest body of freshwater in Lebanon). The dam, which created the artificial lake or reservoir, is the largest dam built in Lebanon for multipurpose uses of hydropower generation (190 MW), irrigation (28,500 ha) and drinking water supply. It is a concrete-faced rockfill dam (CFRD) of 61 m height built with crest level at EL 801 m with a dam length of 1090 m, over karstic limestone formations. The reservoir has a storage capacity of 220 million cubic metres at maximum pond elevation of 858 m.[3]

The lake environment includes woodland, orchards and low-growing scrubs; it attracts about 20,000 migratory birds such as Bird of prey, storks, pelicans and wintering fowl. Ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca), Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus), Greater Spotted Eagle (Aquila clanga), Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) and Lapwing (Vanellus gregarius) are some of the birds which are of conservation concern according to the 2008 IUCN Red List.[1][4]

Archaeology

Heavy Neolithic pick of the Qaraoun culture found at Mtaileb I - Double ended pick, triangular section with narrowing, jagged edges at both ends. Light grey and streaky silicious limestone.

The town gives its name to the Neolithic Qaraoun culture of the Beqaa Valley notable for the Heavy Neolithic flint industry.[5][6] There are two archaeological sites in the area.

Qaraoun I

Qaraoun I is a Heavy Neolithic archaeological site of the Qaraoun culture, located on the left side of the Litani river, a little downstream from the Qaraoun Dam. It is an open site on the slope overlooking the river, west of the road to Kaukaba in stony fields about 200 m before a descent in the road that passes the dam. It was recorded as being 100 m down from the branching point of the Litani and north Cheeta at 300 m north of cote 801. Flint tools were found on the top of limestone cliffs where some soil had fallen away into a wadi. The site was discovered by Dubertret and studied by Henri Fleisch in a publication of 1954[7] along with Jacques Cauvin in 1963.[8] Materials recovered include picks, scrapers and axes with an abundance of waste blades, flakes and Levallois cores amongst others.[9] Material was confirmed as a Heavy Neolithic site by Henri Fleisch in a personal communication to Lorraine Copeland in 1965. It is stored in the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory at Saint Joseph University and resembles the finds from Qaraoun II. Another collection was made on a visit with J. King in 1966 that included long blades, a few tidy bifaces, picks, rabots and huge Levallois cores. Collections made at this site in 1900 are also held in Croatia at the Archaeological Museum, Zagreb Museum Laboratory and in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Museum of Sarajevo.[10]

Qaraoun II

Qaraoun II is the type site of the Neolithic Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa valley. It is located on top of a gorge on the right of the river. A large area of the site is now completely destroyed but a large collection of flints was collected by workers and examined by Jacques Cauvin and Marie-Claire Cauvin. The collection includes a full range of Heavy Neolithic material with oval, almond shaped and rectangular axes, trapezoidal and rectangular chisels, thick discoid, side and end scrapers on large blades, picks and burins and a full range of cores. The Cauvins suggested the material had similarities to the Neolithic moyen assemblage from Byblos and Andrew Moore theorized that Heavy Neolithic stations such as this were used during earlier and later periods.[9] James Mellaart suggested the Heavy Neolithic industry of the culture dated to a period before the Pottery Neolithic at Byblos (10600 to 6900 BCE according to the ASPRO chronology).[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Qaraoun Village". aub.edu.lb. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  2. ^ a b Center for Economic; Financial and Social Research and Documentation (1978). The Arab economist. Center for Economic, Financial and Social Research and Documentation. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  3. ^ International Commission on Large Dams; International Association for Hydraulic Research; International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (2008). International journal on hydropower & dams. Aqua-Media International. pp. 76–77. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  4. ^ "Lake Qaraoun". Birdlife.org. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  5. ^ Lorraine Copeland; P. Wescombe (1965). Inventory of Stone-Age sites in Lebanon, p. 43. Imprimerie Catholique. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  6. ^ Fleisch, Henri., Nouvelles stations préhistoriques au Liban, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, vol. 51, pp. 564-565, 1954.
  7. ^ Fleisch, Henri., Nouvelles stations préhistoriques au Liban. BSPF, vol. 51, p. 564
  8. ^ Cauvin, Jacques., Le néolithique de Mouchtara (Liban-Sud). L'Anthropologie, vol. 65, 1-2, p. 72
  9. ^ a b Moore, A.M.T. (1978). The Neolithic of the Levant. Oxford University, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. pp. 434–444.
  10. ^ L. Copeland; P. Wescombe (1966). Inventory of Stone-Age Sites in Lebanon: North, South and East-Central Lebanon, p. 37-38. Impr. Catholique. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  11. ^ Mellaart, James, Earliest Civilizations in the Near East, Thames and Hudson, London, 1965.
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