|
|
State ! |
The area of Lebanon is 10,452 square kilometers,
with a population of around 4 millions. Lebanon lies
to the east of the Mediterranean, sharing borders to the north and
east with Syria, and to the south with Israel. Lebanon is hemmed
between sea and mountain, and it has an extremely narrow coastal
strip that stretches along the shore of the eastern Mediterranean.
It is a mountainous country and between the two
mountain ranges of Jebel Lubnan (Mount Lebanon),
Mount Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon range lies the fertile Bekaa
Valley, which is part of the Great Rift system, which stretches
from southern Turkey to Mozambique in Africa.
Approximately half of the country lies at an altitude
of over 900m (3000ft). Lebanon's highest peaks
are Qurnat as Sawda' (3,088 m/10,131 ft) in the country's north,
and volcanic Mount Hermon
(2,814 m/9,232 ft) at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanons. The
country's name comes from the old Semitic word laban, meaning
"white," which refers to the heavy snow in the mountains.
Into this small country is packed such a variety
of scenery that there are few places to equal it in beauty and
choice. The famous cedar trees grow high in the mountains, while
the lower slopes bear grapes, apricots, plums, peaches, figs,
olives and barley, often on terraces painstakingly cut out from
the mountainsides.
|
Republic of Lebanon |
Independent since 1943, Lebanon is a Democratic
Republic. Its Constitution provides for three branches
of government: an executive, a legislature, and an independent judiciary.
The president of the republic, who appoints the prime minister,
is elected by the Chamber of Deputies, the legislative body. Lebanon
has a political system, where important positions are divided according
to religious backgrounds.
The constitution of Lebanon is dividing power
between the country's three religious groups, the Shi's,
the Sunnis and the Maronite Christians. The president is always
a Maronite Christian, the prime minister
a Sunni Muslim, while the speaker of the National Assembly a Shi'i
Muslim. This has left the Christians the most powerful group politically,
with the Shi'is as the least influential. The National Assembly
has 128 seats, which are out for free elections, every four years.
The freedom of speech, press and religious belief
are guaranteed by the Constitution. Lebanon is divided into six
regional governments, or Mohafazaat: Beirut, North Lebanon, Mount
Lebanon, South Lebanon,
The Bekaa Valley and Nabatiyeh.
|
| |
|
|
