Lebanon is an exciting country with a rich cultural and societal history that stretches back to earlier than 7000 BC. That’s a very, very long time. So it should come as no surprise that the architecture of Lebanon is a rich embodiment of a country with such a long and eventful history.
Here’s some of our favourite examples of Lebanon’s rich architectural history:
Byblos, formerly Jbeil, is a coastal city located in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Byblos is a special city because it is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Although an exact date is not known, it is believed to have first been occupied as long ago as 8000 BC, and has been continuously inhabited since 5000 BC.
Byblos serves as the perfect exemplifier of the rich architectural history of Lebanon, as the country’s history can be traced through the ruins that are still present throughout the city.
Ancient Egyptian architecture
Thought to have been built in the 19th Century BC, the temple of the obelisks shows the strong connections between the trade port of Byblos and the cities of ancient Egypt. The temple itself has obelisks dedicated to Egyptian gods, reflective of the strong relationship that was developed due to the trading of wood between the Phoenicians and the ancient Egyptians.
Some of the earliest examples of architecture in Lebanon hail from the Phoenician period, roughly 800 – 1000 years BC. The Phoenicians were a seafaring people who hailed from an area that included what is now the Mediterranean and the coastlines of Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and parts of Turkey.
Byblos is actually the place where the Phoenician alphabet, consisting of 22 characters, was developed. To this day, mot all early Phoenician inscriptions were excavated at Byblos, some of them dating back to the 10th Century BC
Like, it seems, most of the world at the time, Lebanon became a part of the Roman empire, in the first half of the last century BC. Roman control of the region was strongly felt in the city of Byblos, and Roman rule brought with it large temples, civic gardens, and reorganization of the city’s roads.
Fast forward to today, and most of what survives from Roman times in Byblos is mainly ruins at archaeological sites and include an amphitheatre.
As the Crusaders swept through the Holy Lands in the 12th Century, they left their mark upon the country of Lebanon, with Byblos itself becoming part of a Crusader state connected to the main Crusader Kingdom. During this period of control, the Crusaders added their classic Western European architecture to Byblos, such as the Crusader castle of Gibelet now known as Byblos Castle, which dates from the 12th century and stands upon the remains of old roman structures, and is one of the finest examples of a classic 12th century castle that still remains standing.