LEBANON: A COUNTRY OF VARIETY Lined by the Mediterranean Sea and crossed by two parallel mountain ranges, Lebanon, with its 10 452 km2, seems suspended between sky and sea. In spite of its small surface, this country is characterized by its incredible variety. A variety that we find at once in its relief, its nature, its culture and its history.   Of the blue sea in the snowy tops, landscapes sometimes dry, sometimes green, offer themselves to the visitor in a surprising contrast where succeed one another Rocky Mountains and luxuriant valleys sprayed by rivers and inexhaustible waterfalls. We cross abruptly forests of pines which tumble down the sides of hills in the desert areas prolonged by fertile plains where become entangled orchards and vineyards.   Lebanon is also the country in the multiple origins, shaped by 10 000 years of history. The beauty of this country and its privileged geographical position, were worth to it being desired by diverse civilizations which left it their cultural and archaeological tracks come be added to the indelible imprint of Phéniciens, illustrious ancestors and famous inventors of the alphabet.  Here archeological sites mix in an extraordinary variety. Sarcophaguses phéniciens which extend at feet of the Roman temples, in the citadels of the Crusaders which live with the mosques of the Mamelukes, we do not grow tired of discovering the secular witnesses(batons) of at once rich and animated past.

CEDARS: EMBLEM OF THE LEBANON

Lebanon without its cedars would not be Lebanon. They are a part integral of this country; the majesty of their presence evokes the tops of spotless snow, the cool babble of springs, the unusual silence of the summits where the time seems suspended …   In cedars, which in thick massifs recovered the mountain, henceforth gave way ski resorts, region of Bécharré and Jbeil, massifs of Sannine, etc.   If the Lebanese chose the cedar as symbol of their flag, it is because they see in him the " promise of the future ".

BEIRUT

Beirut, the name of which means well or source(spring), is a magnificent and very charming city.   Beirut indisputably stood out as the capital of the Lebanon by its seriousness and its maturity which(who) made it the first cultural, financial, commercial and hospitable center of all the country.   The city knew these last decades an impressive development, reaching(affecting) a million inhabitants today, that it are city sophisticated or beggars of all kinds. The life is active and hectic here. Following the events of these last years, the city does not have, contrary to what we could believe, changed a lot.   There where buildings collapse, the others are immediately reconstructed. However Beirut seems to find a more quiet rhythm after the disproportionate growth today of these last thirty years.

BYBLOS

Byblos, turning the back in the sea, is one of main witnesses of the medieval history of the Lebanon today. It is necessary only to visit majestic castle of the Crusaders, who also built the church Holy Jean-Baptist, magnificent Romanic cathedral, to be persuaded. Built in the seaside, Byblos is a place of preference for the vacationers, with its charming small port where fuss the fishermen who seem to appear from another century..   His hotels, his restaurants in front of the sea are also very appreciated by the tourism; as far as not far from there we can find a small beach of fine sand, place convenient to the bathing and to the underwater fishing. Let us not forget to indicate a point mattering in the history of the humanity: the invention of the alphabet which was born to Byblos by 1200 before J.C.