Aitanite/ Aitaneet (عيتنيت) is a village in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, in the West Beqaa region. Aitanit is located in the southern region of Lebanon, particularly the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

. Aitanit is also located about 1070 meters above sea level and is currently on the edge of a mountain. Below the mountain and the village is Lake Quaroun (

Litani river The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

). In addition, the villages overlooks the village

Qaraoun Qaraoun is a Lebanese village, 85 km from Beirut, known for its Lake Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley formed by the El Wauroun Dam built in 1959. It is an ecologically fragile zone in the Western Beqaa District. The village lies about 800 m a ...

, which is just across the lake, And it also lays north of the town

Mashghara Machghara (), also spelled Mashghara, is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, situated in the Western Beqaa District and south of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just to the northwest of Sohmor and southwest of Lake Qaraoun, south of Aitanit and ...

. The whole region around the village are farmlands and pastures filled with grape, olive trees, and many other fruit plants.

History

In 1838, missionary and scholar

Eli Smith Eli Smith (September 13, 1801 – January 11, 1857) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. Biography Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (née Whitney) Smith. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from A ...

noted Aithenit '' as a village on the West side of the

, next to '' Bab Mari'a''.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
141
/ref> Aitanit has approximately 880 residents. In the municipal Lebanese elections of 2004, its accounted 3,263 registered voters of which 1,784 actual voters. If the total number of Aitanite citizens who have emigrated were included the figure would be nearer to 20,000. Aitanite is a popular summer destination for many Lebanese living abroad whose families originated from this area. Many former Aitaneet families live in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, and

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. Many people return in the summer to visit friends and family members. Currently, many of the townspeople are elderly or children because other locals reside in the capital region of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, or elsewhere for job/business opportunities. Aitanit has two churches serving the village, one for the

Maronite Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...

s and the other is

Melkite The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in West Asia. The term comes from the common Central Semitic root ''m-l-k'', meaning "royal", referrin ...

Catholic. The village is predominantly Catholic but is surrounded by the neighboring Muslim town of Machghara and Christian villages of Bab Mareh, Saghbine, and Ain Zebde.

Aitanit Aitanite/ Aitaneet (عيتنيت) is a village in Lebanon, in the West Beqaa Governorate, Beqaa region. Aitanit is located in the southern region of Lebanon, particularly the Beqaa Valley. Aitanit is also located about 1070 meters above sea level ...

has one school taught by the nuns of the village. Aitanit is about (45 km) 45 minutes from

Zahlé Zahlé () is a city in eastern Lebanon, and the capital and largest city of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. With around 150,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli and the fourth-largest ...

(Capital of the Bekaa valley region) and about an hour and thirty minutes from Beirut. In the winter, Aitanit experiences cool, wet, snowy conditions (about 10/50 degrees in the day and about 1/33 or 1/34 degrees in the night) but in the summer, it experiences hot dry conditions (30/86 to 37/99 in the day and about 20/68 to 28/82 in the night). Each year, Aitanit holds a festival called Eid Al Sayde. At the festival, you can experience food cooked by the women of the town, fireworks and loud

dabke ''Dabke'' ( also spelled ''dabka'', ''dabki'', ''dubki'', ''dabkeh'', plural ''dabkaat'') is a Levantine folk dance, particularly popular among Lebanese, Jordanian, Palestinian, and Syrian communities. Dabke combines circle dance and line da ...

music. Dabke is a traditional Lebanese dance.

Climate

References

Bibliography

External links

Aaytanit
Localiban
aitanitmunicipality.com
for Photos and Details * https://web.archive.org/web/20110605235502/http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/a/b/o/David-J-Abood/BOOK-0001/0000-0001.html * http://assadaboodfoundation.org/index.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120301192108/http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/users/m/a/n/Jomana-F-Mansour/index.html {{Western Beqaa District Populated places in Western Beqaa District