Barelias
| Barelias | |||
| State : |
 Lebanon
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| Coordinates : | 33 ° 47 ' N , 35 ° 54' E | ||
| Height : | 900 m | ||
| Area : | 3.5 km² | ||
| Residents : | 25,000 | ||
| Population density : | 7,143 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
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Barelias is a city in Lebanon . It is located in the Bekaa plain and has about 25,000 inhabitants. Barelias is located at an altitude of 900 meters above sea level 51 kilometers from Beirut . The area is around 3,500 hectares , of which around 700 hectares are inhabited, the rest is used for agriculture .
Meaning and pronunciation of the name
The name Barelias, like other city names such as Antelias , Marelias , Qabelias , can be divided into two words: Bar and Elias, which means "the land of Elias" in Arabic . In standard Arabic the name is pronounced as it is written in German. In the Lebanese dialect, the name is pronounced as "Barelyes". Another derivation of the name comes from Aramaic, which coined many place names as the lingua franca of the Middle East. "Bar" means "son", from which the analogous meaning Eliassohn (sons) results.
history
There is no document confirming the establishment of the city. What is certain is that there were some farmhouses in Barelias before Elias, the holy Maronite missionary , built the first church on the banks of the Litani River in the 14th century. There are no more ruins to be found of the church , as the Ottomans removed them during their rule. In addition, the course of the river was expanded mechanically in the 1960s. It was only under the mandate of the Ottoman Christian Dawud Bascha at the end of the 19th century that the church was allowed to be rebuilt in Barelias, but this time not on the river, but at the foot of the remote hill ( Tall-Barelias , which means "the hill of Barelias"), which is still used as a cemetery .
Ethnic groups
In the constituency of Middle Bekaa, Barelias is the largest city with Sunni votes, which is why a Sunni MP is traditionally elected from Barelias. The population of Barelias until 1993 consisted of 95 percent Muslims of Sunni faith and five percent Maronite Christians. After the wave of naturalization in 1993, which was promoted by the murdered primary minister Rafik Hariri, other groups of different faiths were naturalized, so that an estimated 90 percent of the population in Barelias still consists of Sunnis. The number of Christians has tended to decline as they emigrate.
In Barelias, the Palestinian minority cannot be neglected. In hardly any other place in Lebanon are the Palestinians as integrated as in Barelias. They live both in the city and in a newly built district north of the city. The Palestinian students are allowed to attend the normal schools where they have Lebanese schoolmates and vice versa. In addition, there have been new relationships between Lebanese citizens and Palestinians since the 1970s.
Great personalities
- Assem Araji : Neurologist and Sunni MP in the Lebanese Parliament