Lebanon Mountains
| Lebanon | ||
|---|---|---|
 Preserved cedar forest in the Lebanon Mountains in winter |
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| Highest peak | Qurnat as-Sauda ( 3088 m ) | |
| location | Lebanon | |
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| Coordinates | 34 ° 18 ′ N , 36 ° 7 ′ E | |
The Lebanon Mountains ( Arabic جبل لبنان Jabal Lubnan , Syriac Aramaic ܛܘܪ ܠܒܢܢ; ṭūr lébnon ) is a mountain range that extends from the north of Lebanon about 160 km parallel to the Mediterranean coast and crosses practically the entire national territory to the southwest. The mountains are the namesake of Lebanon, whose population protected themselves here against opponents advancing from the east. The mountains served in particular as a retreat for religious communities such as the Druze , Alawites and numerous Christian groups.
geography
The highest point is the mountain Qurnat as-Sauda ('Black Horn') with a height of 3,088 meters, which rises southeast of Tripoli . In winter (November to April) the mountain peaks are covered with snow. Possibly they are the origin of the name, because laban means “white” in Aramaic . The mountains are delimited in the north by the river al-Nahr al-Kabir ('big river') from the Nusayriyah mountains in Syria. In the south, the al-Qasimiyah River forms a barrier. The total length of the mountain is 169 kilometers. The width varies - in the north near Tripoli it is 56.5 km wide; in the south the width is 9.5 km. The Jabal Sannin, which is east of Beirut, is the second highest mountain at 2628 meters. The southern foothills of the mountains are called Chouf .
In the east, parallel to the Lebanon Mountains, runs the mountain range of Anti-Lebanon . Both mountains are separated by the Bekaa plain . In the west, a narrow coastal strip, mostly less than 5 km and a maximum of 6.5 km wide, delimits the mountains from the sea. The Lebanon Mountains consist mainly of limestone that has karstification . As a result, numerous caves such as the Jeita Grotto were created.
The mountains were earlier - as the oldest written sources around 2600 BC. Until the 2nd century BC Known in Roman times - covered with oak and pine forests. To this day there are still (very small) remnants of the old Lebanon cedar ( Cedrus libani ). The Phoenicians used the forests of the Lebanon Mountains for their shipbuilding and traded the wood throughout the Levant . From 1864 until the creation of the modern Republic of Lebanon, a large area of the Lebanon Mountains was a semi-autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th century under the name Mutesarriflik Lebanonberg .
Web links
literature
- Wolfgang Gockel and Helga Bruns: Syria. Lebanon. Nelles Guide, Munich 2010, ISBN 3886188248 .
- Marvin W. Mikesell: The Deforestation of Mount Lebanon. In: Geographical Review, Vol. 59, No. January 1 , 1969, pp. 1-28
- Anke Röhl, Andrea Rosebrock: Lebanon. Travel guide. Stein-Verlag, Kronshagen 1998, p. 163f, ISBN 3-89392-213-X .