Borj Ech Chemali ( ar, برج الشمالي) is a town in the
Tyre District
The Tyre District is a district in the South Governorate of Lebanon.
History Ancient history
Founded at the start of the third millennium BC, Tyre originally consisted of a mainland settlement and a modest island city that lay a short distance o ...
in South
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, located just east of
Tyre.
Name
According to
E. H. Palmer in 1881, the name ''Burj esh Shemâly'' means "the northern tower".
History
In 1875,
Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...
found the village to be inhabited by 150
Métualis
Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...
. The old fort was divided into several private dwellings.
In 1881, the
PEF's
''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it as: "A large village built of stone, containing about 300
Metawileh
Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...
, placed on a low ridge, with figs, olives, and arable land around. There are two good springs nearby.
They further noted that it was "a village with a similar tower of drafted masonry (as that of
Borj Rahal
Borj Rahal ( ar, برج رحال ) is a town in the Tyre District in South Lebanon. Name
According to E. H. Palmer in 1881, the name ''Burj Rahhal'' means "the traveller’s tower".
History
In the 1860s, Ernest Renan found here seven singular ...
). The hill is crowned by a stronghold, the vaults of which, slightly ogival, do not appear older than the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
, but it was constructed of older blocks, some in drafted masonry while others are completely smoothed. About a mile to the south-west of this hill is a subterranean series of tombs, each containing several ranges of
loculi, which was explored by
Renan."
[Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p]
58
/ref>
References
Bibliography
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External links
Localiban
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 1
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Tyre District
Populated places in Tyre District
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon