Wednesday 29 June 2011

Tourism in Lebanon

Tourism in Lebanon, one of the most important sources of income in the state treasury, where since ancient times to the present, a pillar of the Lebanese national economy and provides jobs for many people. Was seen to Lebanon before the civil war, as the "Switzerland of the East", where he was attracting capital and foreign business and the many tourists who wish to recognize the culture and customs of the population of the eastern Mediterranean.
 
The nature of Lebanon and its cultural diversity and historical result of the different civilizations that have gone through it made ​​it a destination landmark for foreign tourists, the country includes a number of attractions and activities of interest to different groups of people, there are many monuments of Greek and Romanian remaining forts and castles, Arab, Byzantine, Crusader, limestone caves, churches and mosques historically, the sandy and rocky beaches, night clubs and ranches, mountain ski resorts, in addition to world-famous Lebanese cuisine

 There are many private investments that took the float to the surface in this sector is currently taking growing, and returned to the country a lot of companies, international hotels which she had fled at the beginning of the civil war. Re-opening of the "Casino du Liban" in 1996, which was a major destination for tourists during the sixties of the twentieth century. Lebanon is the only country in the Arab world that can be purpose in the winter for skiing and other winter sports, with the expansion and renewal of the largest ski resort in the country, to accommodate more people and provides them with better services. Officials believe that the return of peace and stability to Lebanon, the tourism sector will be back again to be the most important sources of income for the Lebanese government. Lebanese tourism sector depends also on the large number of Lebanese immigrants who return each year to their home country during the summer season to Aamadoh among family and friends

Lebanon is one of the richest countries culturally, as it combines a number of features of East and West, of human settlements dating back to the Stone Age, to cities and mini-states Phoenician, and Temples ROMANIAN to rituals carved in the mountains, and Crusader castles to the mosques Mamluk and public baths Ottoman Empire. Thus, some say that Lebanon is "a mosaic combining Eastern and Western world" and "Encyclopedia of the civilizations of the ancient world of modern and ancient
 
The history of cultural tourism is very old in Lebanon, where he visited many of the Orientalists, scholars and poets of European countries for their interest in culture and customs Lebanese East, notably: Alphonse de Lamartine and Ernest Renan, Victor Guerin, they came mostly in the nineteenth century to recognize closely at the historical monuments, archaeological sites , traditional clothing, religious celebrations, or pilgrimage to some holy places and shrines. Behind some of them after visiting some of the paintings and diaries

The history of archeology in Lebanon very old, with back to the reign of Almtsrfah, where he was disposed "and As Pasha" (1883-1893) was interested rulers exploration Alathartm detect many archaeological sites in Lebanon during the times past and even today, and was restored some of which are damaged during the civil war, but many other sites is still under populated cities and villages built on the ruins from ancient
  Lebanon's three major museums

· National Museum of Beirut was established in 1937, which contains approximately 100,000 pieces antique, mostly dating back to ancient times, middle, and about 1,300 of them, dating back to the prehistoric times to the reign of the Mamluks in the Middle Ages.
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· Gibran Museum: It was originally a monastery in the town of a human, then turned into a museum by the "Friends of Gibran", in honor of the philosopher, writer, poet and painter and theologian American Lebanese Gibran Khalil Gibran. The museum contains notes Jubran and his furniture and his personal library and his paintings
· American University Museum: This museum is the third oldest museum in the Near East, which displays a number of artifacts dating back to the Stone Age all the way to the Covenant of the Islamic
· Museums include other famous: Museum of Ameen Rihani - Museum of Mustafa Farrukh - Museum and Library Catholicosate Qiliqih - Museum of Baalbek - Museum Dahesh Art - Museum of Lebanese heritage - museum, Robert Mouawad Private - Museum of Byblos fossils - Palace Sursock - Wax Museum in Jbeil - Museum of memory of time - Museum of soap in Sidon

 Lebanon is located at the crossroads for all of Europe, Asia and Africa, and is therefore located in the center of the Arab and Islamic worlds of Christian European culture and therefore collect and Revolution in Asarhama in the crucible of cultural one. It appears this is evident in the monuments of Islamic and Christian antiquity, which still exists today, in addition to the customs and traditions common among followers of religions, which are still prominent to this day, although the unit more or less depending on the degree of openness to the West and mixing with the followers of other religion. Lebanon was a refuge for many religious communities oppressed through the ages, which was a legacy by growing religious and accumulated through the centuries reflected a number of shrines and the Christian and Islamic shrines

Is the most Islamic landmarks in Lebanon, of a number of mosques, libraries, schools and public baths in the town of Anjar, which was founded by the Umayyads in the eighth century, and the cities of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon. The Christian monuments located in the most Jbeil, Jounieh, Beirut, and Bkirki, and a number of areas in Mount Lebanon and the South. There are also features of private religious Druze denomination exclusively, located mostly in the Chouf

 Anjar
And put the town of Anjar in the list of World Heritage sites in 1984. Built this city since 1,300 years, and this is one of the most recent archaeological sites in Lebanon, was built primarily to be a commercial center on the trade routes of maize by order of the Umayyad Caliph Walid bin Abdul Malik, and its name is derived from the "eye of dragging", ie the origin or the origin of dragging the latter was a bulwark Amoaa based in the same area lined with mosques, palaces and public baths, houses and warehouses, along the wide avenues of the city. Covering the effects and the ruins of the city area of ​​114.000 m 2, and is surrounded by huge stone walls two meters thick and Talo seven meters from the ground. Design is based on the rectangular city plans to civil and Roman architecture, and designs stone Vmojuzh for the Byzantines. Divide the city into four sections by two large Jadtan: the first width 20 meters and are going from north to south, and the second from east to west. City Center is located at the intersection of Avenues, there are 4 gates of a huge four bases on each corner of the intersection of the four

 Baalbek
Baalbek was the Phoenician era just a small town where Abdul trinity gods of fertility when the Canaanite peoples, the Baal and Anat, and select. Today very little remains of the Phoenician ruins of the city, which the Greeks call it the "City of the Sun" (Latin: Heliopolis) during the Hellenistic era of governance, the Romans and re-built and designed to take a purely character Romania. After the Romans arrived Phoenicia in 64 BC. M., So they converted the town into a big city worshiped the trinity of gods own, ie, Jupiter, Venus and Markorius, and built the temples enormous within two centuries, visitors can Baalbek today to enter the castle through the gallery front roomy , and then crossing the Venaúan baptized to get to the temple complex, which includes the Great

 · Jupiter Temple: This temple is the largest temples built by the Romanian at all, has not left the day of Corinthian columns, which was carrying only 6 columns out of 54 column. Reaches the height of each column to 22 meters (66 feet), with a diameter of two meters (7.5 feet), which shows the enormity of the temple when he was still standing during the reign of the Romanian Empire.
· Temple of Bacchus: It is more ROMANIAN-preserved temples in the Middle East, and although smaller than the Temple of Jupiter, but it is still the largest in size of the Parthenon in Athens. Is still the goal from behind the building of this temple and its relation to the rest of the temples of the complex mystery.
· Venus Temple: This temple is smaller than the former temples, the dome is located in the southeast side of the complex. Has turned into a church in the Byzantine era dedicated to the honor of St. Barbara.
· Temple Markorius: left him only a staircase, which can be seen from the "hill, Sheikh Abdullah," a short distance from the main site of the Temple
Baalbek has been developed from the list of World Heritage Sites in 1984

Jbeil
Jubail included to the list of World Heritage sites in 1984, a city inhabited since the Neolithic period, has seen a succession of many peoples and civilizations, from Phoenicians and the Crusaders all the way to the Ottoman Turks. The port of Byblos and the historic Mediterranean city, was founded thousands of years, and is often linked to the Phoenician alphabet, as it is known that the Phoenician alphabet spread in Europe and the Mediterranean basin to start from this city

 And put the city of Tyre on the list of World Heritage sites in 1984. This city was one of the most important Phoenician cities that were not the most important, where he established the colonies of their children than the mother city's fame and glory in the Mediterranean basin, the likes of Carthage and Cadiz, which is the origin of the purple pigment known as "purple pictures." Many civilizations have passed over the city and settled a lot of peoples, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and the Ottoman Turks still today a number of effects prominent in the city, and fulfilled mostly dating back to Roman times

 Characterized by craft products Lebanese beauty and artistic taste, which attracts many tourists who want to keep the commemoration for their journey to the country. Artisan production is concentrated in Lebanese villages and some towns, where people inherit this skill from generation to generation, make their products from local raw materials. Specialize each of the regions of Lebanon a particular type of craft production, such as basket-making, carpet weaving, pottery making, pottery, copper smithing, embroidery, glass industry and the formulation of gold and silver. Characterized some of the villages of Lebanon also made bells of churches decorated
 Lebanon offers the opportunity for tourists to the different activities in nature, and because of the diversity of geography, nature and climate, which allows the practice of various types of outdoor sports in the regions and different seasons. Are the mountains, deciduous forests and evergreen, beaches, rivers seasonal and permanent, caves, valleys and mountain passes, the most prominent Lebanese terrain, as well as home to the country's diverse wildlife, particularly birds of them. Lebanon has become in recent years a popular destination for nature lovers who wish to exploration, camping, bird watching and other forms of eco-tourism and sports and activities that can be exercised

 · Cycling Quartet (ATV).
· Altermat, a relatively new sport in Lebanon, loved ones practiced in the rivers Orontes and the Litani and the initial
· Walk in the woods and explored, a famous sport, and there are a number of favorite sites frequented by loved ones, such as the Al Shouf Cedar Nature Reserve, sand, forest Aalghemuah, protected Horch Ehden, and Nahr Ibrahim.
· Explore the caves, a famous and ancient sport in Lebanon, of the famous caves frequented by people: the horizon Grotto cave, Ruwais, and set the block.
In addition to exploration by motorcycle, and mountain climbing ladders by drilling (in Italian: Via Ferrata) and abseiling, horse riding, skiing board itself singular and mountain biking and mountain climbing.

Lebanon is of the few centers in the Middle East equipped for skiing. Although the country is primarily a summer destination, but winter tourism is witnessing a noticeable increase, because of the proximity of the mountain from the coast, allowing the visitor to practice skiing and back to Beirut or any other coastal city within an hour or two only. The ski season begins in December / January. Believes the major resorts to its customers stay in hotels and chalets winter in addition to many facilities include ski. Include winter sports in Lebanon: the ski slopes on the ice, running long, as well as parachuting, ice slides driving mechanism, and explore the forests and mountains in Lebanon are six ski resorts

· Rice: a height of between 1850 and 3087 meters above sea level, is located 120 km from Beirut.
· Faria / Siman eyes: as high as between 1850 and 2500 meters, about 45 km from Beirut.
· Laqlouq: up to a height between 1750 and 2200 meters, and away from Beirut, a distance of 60 km.
· Poorest: up to a height between 1800 and 2400 meters above sea level, and away from Beirut, a distance of 45 km.
· Channel Bakic: rising 1,900 meters above sea level, and lies 60 kilometers from Beirut.
· Hawthorn: heights ranging between 1700 and 2000 meters above sea level, and is located 40 kilometers from Beirut.

Lebanon became a center is a leading regional health tourism in the Middle East, as it has all the elements of medical tourism with a number of hospitals and equipment. There are 161 hospitals in Lebanon, including 7 university hospitals contains 15 thousand beds.
Lebanon can provide a broad basket of medical specialties to seeking treatment, including diagnosis of heart disease and surgical techniques, therapeutic and surgical techniques to treat heart disease and cosmetic surgery and slimming, cancer, physical therapy and pediatric

 Up along the coast to 200 km, and the number of sunny days in the country for nearly 300 days, making it a popular destination prominent for fans of recreational activities and marine sports growing in different parts of the country's beaches and water park, known in Lebanon: Oceana Bjic Resort (in English: Oceana beach resort ), Edde Sands (English: Edde Sands), to Aguaga Resort (in English: Laguava Resort), Sian (English Cyan), the sur-Mer (French: Janna sur mer), Green Bjic (English: Green Beach), Pamboo Bay (English: Bamboo bay), Waves Aqua Park (English Waves Aquapark), Aqua, Water Gate Park (in English: Watergate Aquapark

 A large number of festivals in Lebanon, particularly in the summer season, providing artists for the Lebanese and foreign paintings in various archaeological sites and historical key, particularly in Baalbek and Byblos, Beit Din The festivals of Lebanon's major are: festivals Anjar, Festival Al Bustan Festival Baalbek international Festival Beiteddine, Byblos international festivals, festivals Deir Al-Qamar, festivals pictures.
 
Tourism is the main sector which supplies the majority of the Lebanese Treasury of financial resources, where they contribute about 20% of the gross domestic product during the decades that preceded the civil war. Since the end of the war, taking the sector had begun to recover slowly, but that tourism has not yet returned to the same level as before the war

 Contributed to the tourism sector by about 9% of GDP in 1999, and in 2001 was the fastest growing sectors of the country's growth, where the percentage increase in tourists who visited the country between 1996 and 2000 to 14% per year to pump the tourism sector 6.374 million U.S. dollars to the Lebanese economy in 2003 in 2005, per capita GDP of U.S. $ 1.433 in 2006, the Ministry of tourism statistics show that where there are 373.037 reservation at major tourist sites in the country

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