Fanar ( ar, الفنار

translit. Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...

al-Fanar) is a village in the

Matn District Matn ( ar, قضاء المتن, '), sometimes spelled Metn (or preceded by the article El, as in El Matn), is a district ('' qadaa'') in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The district capital is ...

of the Mount Lebanon Governorate,

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 ...

. It is situated in the heart of Lebanon, 7 km from

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and was previously called (Achrafieh El Fawqa) however the name Fanar was chosen since it had an important lighthouse. The town was known to have very few residents who were farmers and the area was almost entirely green until after the

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

when many displaced families chose the area to live in and turned the small town into a city.

Civil war

During the civil war, 4 young Christian men of the

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party ( ar, حزب الكتائب اللبنانية '), also known in English as the Phalanges, is a Christian political party in Lebanon. The party played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). In decline in the la ...

were assassinated in Fanar by Muslims in the area, which sparked the Black Saturday, a revenge act in which cause the killing of hundreds of Muslim citizens across Lebanon.

Etymology

Fanar is an

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

word that means a lantern (through

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

phanòs, φανός).

Geography

Fanar is 8 km away from the capital

lying at an elevation of approximately 250m above sea level.

Demographics

As of 2008, Fanar houses a population of approximately 30 000 of whom 850 are registered voters.

Education

Higher education in Fanar is provided by a large number of schools and universities, such as Lebanese University (Faculty of Science, Faculty of Media and Communication, Faculty of Literatures),

Al-Kafaàt University The Al-Kafaàt University (AKU) ( ar, جامعة الكفاءات) is a private and independent university in Beirut, Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Rep ...

(AKU), College De la Sainte Famille Francaise Fanar, Institution Moderne du Liban (IML), and Collège Notre Dame du Mont Carmel des Sœurs Carmelites de Florence à Fanar. College Stes. Hripsimiantz des soeurs Armeniennes Catholiques de l'Immaculée Conception.

References and footnotes

External links

Populated places in the Matn District Christian cities in Lebanon {{Lebanon-geo-stub