Bechamoun (), is a town near

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 ...

in the

Mount Lebanon Governorate Mount Lebanon Governorate () is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon, of which it is the most populous. Its capital is Baabda. Other notable towns and cities include Aley, Bikfaya, and Beit Mery. This governorate is named after the mount ...

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 ...

. It has an area about 6.6 square kilometres and elevation between 60 and 580 metres above sea level. It lies 8 kilometres from Beirut’s airport and central

. The town has a population of greater than 80000. In November 1943, when the President of the Republic Bechara el-Khoury, the Prime Minister Riad el-Solh, and the majority of the ministers were arrested by the French mandatory forces, Emir Majid Arslan, Minister Habib Abou Chahla and the survivors of the French coup took refuge in Bechamoun and formed a free government, taking up arms in the event of a French attack. The government of Free Lebanon, known as the "Government of Bechamoun", maintained its positions until the prisoners were released on November 22, 1943. Bechamoun was the first village to have raised the new Lebanese flag, adopted in secret by the deputies.

Name

Bchamoun's name is derived from “Beit Chamoun” (Arabic). The word comes from Syriac Aramaic spoken by the Canaanites. “House of Chamoun” (English), "Temple of Eshmun" (Syriac Aramaic), a Phoenician god.

Schools

Bchamoun has 10 schools, 8 private and 2 governmental.

Hospitals

There is only one hospital in Bchamoun which is Bchamoun Speciality Hospital.

Geography and Archaeology

Bchamoun is divided to 3 parts. 1. Al Day3a zone which is the old village and its three hills surrounded with forests and great views toward

2. Madares 3. Yanar is a modern city that lies under the hills overlooking the airport and

. An archaeological site was discovered east of

Khalde Khaldah () is a coastal town located south of Beirut, Lebanon. It is famous as a tourist destination in the summer, especially for its various beach resorts. The southern portion of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport is located in Khald ...

by V. Hankey in 1963. The site is located on the western terraces of a

conical hill A conical hill (also cone or conical mountain) is a landform with a distinctly conical shape. It is usually isolated or rises above other surrounding foothills, and is often of volcanic origin. Conical hills or mountains occur in different sha ...

, west of the main village called Qalaa' Tahun-el-Haoua. An unpublished collection was also made by R. Saidah. Various pot

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s were found and dated back to the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Maurice Dunand Maurice Dunand (4 March 1898 – 23 March 1987) was a prominent French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East, who served as director of the Mission Archéologique Française in Lebanon. Dunand excavated Byblos from 1924 to 1975, and ...

. Amongst the pottery was a sherd with a cylinder seal showing pattern of marching and alternating

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s and

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

s that was similar to sherds showing a similar type of animalism from

Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...

Megiddo Megiddo may refer to: Places and sites in Israel * Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley * Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel * Megiddo church (Israel) * Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * Megiddo Juncti ...

and other

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

and

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

sites dating to the EB period. Although some thinner pink ware was found, sherds were usually red or grey, thick and well fired. The forms suggested were large, flat based jars with flared rims. Decorations found included incised patterns, made with combs to form bands of chevrons. Similar finds were discovered at Jaita I,

Kaffer Jarra Roueisse Kaffir () is an exonym and an ethnic slur the use of it in reference to black people being particularly common in South Africa and to some degree Namibia and the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In Arabic, the word '' kāfir'' ("unbeliever") was ...

, Nahr Damour, Aramoun and

Khallet-el-Khazen {{unreferenced, date=September 2015 El-Khazen Tract or "El-Khazem Tract" known as Khallet el-Khazem (خلة خازن او خلة خازم) is on the southern part of the mountain of Lebanon with altitudes between 750m and 910m above sea level. The ...

. Two used

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

blades were found along with part of a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

object.

References

External links