Lebanon

Lebanon's coast was the homeland of the Phoenicians, whose ships carried cedar wood, purple dye and — most consequentially — an alphabet that became the ancestor of most writing systems in use today. Byblos, Tyre and Sidon were among their great ports.

Rome, Byzantium, the Umayyads, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans each ruled here, and the mountains gave shelter to communities who preserved their own traditions through all of it.

Modern Lebanon has known both remarkable cultural energy and long periods of conflict; its people, at home and abroad, remain central to its story.

Baalbek holds the largest Roman temple complex ever built, the columns of its Temple of Jupiter still standing above the Bekaa Valley. Byblos claims one of the longest records of continuous habitation anywhere, and Tyre keeps its Roman hippodrome and colonnaded road beside the sea.

Inland, Anjar preserves a rare Umayyad city, and the Qadisha Valley — with the Forest of the Cedars of God above it — has sheltered monastic communities for centuries.

Two mountain ranges run the length of the country, separated by the Bekaa Valley. Snow lies on the peaks into spring, which is why it is possible to ski in the morning and swim in the afternoon.

The cedar of Lebanon, which appears on the national flag, survives in protected groves at Bsharri, Tannourine and the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, where restoration work is slowly extending the forest again.

Lebanese cuisine — mezze, kibbeh, tabbouleh, manakish — is among the most widely known in the world, carried outward by generations of emigrants.

The country's musical and literary influence is equally wide, from Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers to the poets and publishers of Beirut, long a centre of Arabic printing and thought.