Hermel () is a town in

Baalbek-Hermel Governorate Baalbek-Hermel () is a governorate of Lebanon and is the largest by area in the country. It comprises the districts of Baalbek and Hermel, which in turn are subdivided into a total of 74 municipalities. The capital is at Baalbek. The governorate ...

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 is the capital of Hermel District. Hermel is home to a Lebanese

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

First Aid Center. Hermel's inhabitants are predominantly

Shia Muslim Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

s. There is an ancient

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

known as

Kamouh el Hermel Kamouh el Hermel, the Pyramid of Hermel (also known as God's Pyramid, House of El, the Funnel of Hermel or Needle of Hermel) is an ancient pyramid located south of Hermel in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. Location, description The pyramid ...

(Pyramid or Needle of Hermel) located about south of the town that is a popular attraction for local tourists.

History

In 1519 and 1545, the town was under the administration of the ''

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' ("subdistrict") of ''Manasef'', and tax records indicate it had 50 households, all Muslims. The town's population swelled after the Hamade family and their associated Shia clans left

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

to settle in Hermel and its surroundings, which were already part of the Hamade's tax-concessions since 1668. On February 6, 2025, there were reports detailing gunfire from light and medium weapons, which were heard from Lebanese villages near Hermel. The violent clashes were in the town of Hawik between the Zaayter and Jaafar clans on the Lebanese side and

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on 28January 2017 as a merger between several armed groups: Jaysh al-Ahrar (an Ahrar al-Sham facti ...

(HTS) on the Syrian side.

Archaeology

Hermel plains

The Hermel plains are an area of low hills around Hermel, through which runs the Orontes river and several

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

s, which drain into the

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

basin. The area dominates the north of 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 ...

and reaches north to the border with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. A

curious Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps human development, ...

and unpublished

archaeological industry In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typology (archaeology), typological classification of stone tools. An industry consists of a number of lithic Assemblage (archeology ), assemblages, typically including a ra ...

exists from finds of stone tools in this area. It consists of generally small tools whose typology is limited. It was termed the

Shepherd Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic is a name given by archaeologists to a style (or industry) of small flint tools from the Hermel plains in the north Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.Fleisch, Henri., Les industries lithiques récentes de la Békaa, République Libana ...

industry by

Henri Fleisch Reverend Father Henri Fleisch (1 January 1904 – 10 February 1985) was a French archaeologist, missionary and Orientalist, known for his work on classical Arabic language and Lebanese dialect and prehistory in Lebanon. Fleisch spent years re ...

Hermel I (Mrah Abbas)

Hermel I or Mrah Abbas was discovered by Shiat Ali el Karar w beit hmede and is north northeast of Hermel, before reaching

Mrah Abbas Hermel () is a town in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. It is the capital of Hermel District. Hermel is home to a Lebanese Red Cross First Aid Center. Hermel's inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. There is an ancient pyramid known a ...

, next to the road. It is located on an uncultivated sloping plain leading down from the Orontes. The garden revealed the remains of ten

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s, most of which were built on a larger foundation than the covered chamber. Some were perhaps not covered by

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

and a few were evidently not built to have cap-stones on top.

Hermel II (Jisr el Aassi)

Hermel II or Jisr el Aassi is east of Hermel I near the gorge through which the Orontes river flows. It was found by P. Billaux and mentioned by Maurice Tallon in 1958 who made a lengthy description of the largest tumulus in 1959. The lithic industry at the site was discussed by

in 1966. Several dolmens were found around the village of Choueighir, around north of the bridge over the Orontes, in and around the village extending about to the north along the track next to the river. Some of the dolmen are inclined inwards forming a

shape. There is a large tumulus north of the village that is composed of massive blocks where

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

was found and dated 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 ...

III by Tallon. Henri Fleisch found a collection of

flints around these dolmen.

Hermel III (Choueighir)

Hermel III or Choueighir is a village on the left (western) bank of the Orontes and an archaeological site was found by P. Billaux to the north of it.

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 ...

material was described to be of the Shepherd Neolithic type and similar to that of

Maakne Maqne or Maakne () is a town and municipality in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. Maqne I Along with Qaa, Maqne I or Maakne I is a type site of the Shepherd Neolithic industry. The surface site was discovered in 1957 by ...

and el Qaa by Henri Fleisch in 1966, it is held in the

Museum of Lebanese Prehistory The Museum of Lebanese Prehistory (, ) is a museum of prehistory and archaeology in Beirut, Lebanon. History The museum is the first museum of prehistory in the Middle East and was opened in June 2000 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Sain ...

Hermel IV (Wadi el Joz)

Hermel IV or Wadi el Joz is a collection of

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...

s that are east of Hermel Attika, southeast of Hermel on dry terraces that slope towards the channel of the Orontes. It was found by Mohammed Hamadé, surveyed by P. Billaux and published by Maurice Tallon in 1959.Tallon, Maurice., Tumulus et Mégalithes du Hermel et de la Beqa Nord. MUSJ, vol. 31, fasc. 3, p. 91, 1959. A number of tumuli were discovered in this area which covered chambers on rectangular foundation platforms. They were usually orientated east to west with some remnants of walls constructed of megalithic stones. Maurice Tallon made collections of flint and pottery from the area dating to various periods. These included an incised

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

and a tanged scraper from the very earliest

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

times, an Early Bronze Age flat scraper along with later

Middle 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 ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

material.

Demographics

In 2014,

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

made up 99.50% of registered voters in Hermel. 98.35% of the voters were Shiite Muslims.

References

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Lebanon Archaeological type sites Beqaa Valley Great Rift Valley Megalithic monuments in the Middle East Populated places in Hermel District Shepherd Neolithic sites Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon