Setting of the Stage

Abstract

Between the Mediterranean and Syria four longitudinal strips can be delineated: a narrow maritime plain, in places a mere ribbon; the Western Lebanon (Lebanon proper) soaring above the famous cedar grove to an alpine height of 11,024. feet above the sea; a central plateau, al-Biqa, fertile and well-irrigated; and the Eastern Lebanon culminating majestically in Mount Hermon 9383 feet above the sea. These four, as far as the watershed of the Eastern Lebanon, form the modern Lebanese Republic, constituted in 1920. This is roughly the area that forms the subject of our study.