Lebanon exists on 10,452 square kilometers between the Mediterranean Sea and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The coastline measures 225 kilometers. The country lies at the geographic crossroads where three continents meet, a position that determined its history before the first kingdoms formed. Mount Lebanon rises to 3,088 meters at Qurnat as Sawda. Between Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon range lies the Beqaa Valley, a plateau 120 kilometers long and 16 kilometers wide at its widest point. The Litani River, Lebanon's only significant river entirely within its borders, runs 140 kilometers through the Beqaa before turning west to the Mediterranean. This terrain created dozens of isolated mountain valleys where distinct communities developed across centuries.
The Phoenicians established coastal cities by 3200 BCE. Byblos claims continuous habitation since the Neolithic period, making it among the oldest cities on earth. The name Phoenicia derives from the Greek word for purple, referring to the dye these coastal traders extracted from murex shells. Phoenician merchants carried the alphabet they developed across the Mediterranean between 1200 and 800 BCE. That alphabet became the foundation for Greek, Latin, and most modern European writing systems. Tyre and Sidon operated as independent city-states, each controlling trade routes and establishing colonies as far as Carthage in modern Tunisia. The Phoenician period ended when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the coast in 539 BCE.
Roman legions arrived in 64 BCE under Pompey the Great. The Romans built Baalbek's temple complex between the first and third centuries CE. The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek measures 69 meters long and 36 meters wide, with columns reaching 19 meters in height. The nearby Temple of Jupiter once stood on a platform constructed from stones weighing up to 800 tons each, among the largest building blocks ever quarried and moved in the ancient world. A single stone in the foundation, called the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, measures 21.5 meters long, 4.8 meters wide, and 4.2 meters high, with an estimated weight of 1,000 tons. Roman engineers cut it from the quarry 900 meters away but never moved it to the temple. Beirut became a Roman law school renowned across the empire, operating for three centuries until an earthquake destroyed the city in 551 CE.
Christianity arrived in Lebanon during the first century CE through disciples traveling from Jerusalem. Saint Maroun, a fourth-century hermit who lived in the mountains of northern Syria and Lebanon, became the spiritual founder of the Maronite Church. His followers fled to the mountains of Lebanon in the seventh century, establishing monasteries in the Qadisha Valley. The Maronite Church maintains full communion with Rome while preserving unique Eastern liturgies conducted in Aramaic, the language Christ spoke. The Qadisha Valley contains dozens of monasteries carved into cliff faces, some dating to the seventh century. The oldest, Qozhaya Monastery, operated a printing press in 1610 that produced some of the first Arabic books printed with movable type.
Arab armies conquered Lebanon between 636 and 640 CE, bringing Islam to the coastal cities. The Umayyad Caliphate built the city of Anjar in the Beqaa Valley around 705 CE. The ruins show a planned city laid out in a grid, with main streets measuring 20 meters wide lined with columns and shops. The Umayyads abandoned Anjar after fewer than 40 years for reasons historians have not definitively established. Druze communities formed in Lebanon during the 11th century, following the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali, who proclaimed the divinity of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. Druze theology incorporates elements from Islam, Christianity, and Greek philosophy. The Druze keep their religious texts secret, and only a small initiated group called the uqqal can access the full doctrine.
The Crusaders built Beaufort Castle in 1139 on a cliff 300 meters above the Litani River. The fortress controlled the route from Tyre to Damascus. Saladin besieged Beaufort in 1190, and his forces captured it after constructing siege engines that threw stones into the fortress for months. The Mamluks took final control in 1268 and maintained the castle until Ottoman forces arrived in 1516. Crusader presence in Lebanon lasted 150 years, leaving dozens of fortifications along the coast and in the mountains.
Fakhr-al-Din II became emir of the Chouf District in 1590 and expanded his control over Mount Lebanon and parts of Syria. He signed a treaty with Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1608, establishing trade relations and military cooperation. Fakhr-al-Din traveled to Italy in 1613, where he remained for five years while Ottoman forces occupied his territories. He returned in 1618 and rebuilt his emirate, developing silk production that made Lebanon a center of Mediterranean silk trade. The Ottoman sultan ordered his execution in 1635 after he refused to submit to direct Ottoman control. Ottoman soldiers captured him at the fortified palace in Jezzine and transported him to Istanbul, where he was executed on April 13, 1635.
Emir Bashir Shihab II ruled Mount Lebanon from 1788 to 1840, the longest reign of any Lebanese emir. He built Beiteddine Palace beginning in 1788 in the Chouf Mountains. The palace complex covers two hectares and required three decades to complete. Italian craftsmen created the mosaic floors, while local artisans produced the carved cedar ceilings and inlaid furniture. Bashir Shihab allied with Muhammad Ali of Egypt against the Ottoman Empire in 1831. When European powers intervened to preserve Ottoman rule in 1840, British ships bombarded Beirut and forced Bashir Shihab into exile in Malta, where he died in 1850.
Sectarian violence erupted in Mount Lebanon in 1860 between Druze and Maronite communities. The conflict killed between 10,000 and 20,000 people, mostly Maronite Christians, over a three-month period. French troops landed in Beirut in August 1860 under a mandate from European powers to stop the massacres. The Ottoman Empire established the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon in 1861, an autonomous province with a Christian governor appointed by the sultan but approved by European powers. This arrangement lasted until World War I, creating a period of relative stability that allowed silk exports to expand and Beirut to grow as a commercial center.
The Ottoman Empire entered World War I in October 1914. Ottoman authorities requisitioned food supplies and livestock from Lebanon to feed their armies fighting in Palestine and Syria. A plague of locusts destroyed remaining crops in 1915. Allied naval blockades prevented grain imports. Between 1915 and 1918, an estimated 200,000 people in Mount Lebanon died from starvation and disease, nearly half the mountain population. The famine persisted until Allied forces under General Edmund Allenby captured Damascus in October 1918.
France received a League of Nations mandate over Lebanon and Syria in 1920. French General Henri Gouraud proclaimed the State of Greater Lebanon on September 1, 1920, adding the coastal cities of Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre, and Beirut, plus the Beqaa Valley, to the former Mutasarrifate. This created Lebanon's current borders, which many Muslims opposed because they preferred union with Syria. France wrote a constitution in 1926 that established Lebanon as a republic. The National Pact of 1943, an unwritten agreement between Maronite and Sunni leaders, distributed political power among religious communities. The presidency went to a Maronite Christian, the prime minister position to a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament to a Shia Muslim. Parliamentary seats were allocated in a six-to-five ratio of Christians to Muslims.
Lebanon declared independence on November 22, 1943. French forces arrested President Bechara El Khoury and Prime Minister Riad El Solh on November 11, 1943, provoking demonstrations across Lebanon. International pressure forced France to release the leaders on November 22, the date Lebanon marks as Independence Day. French troops withdrew completely on December 31, 1946.