Jieh (or Jiyé, Jiyeh, ) is a seaside town 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 ...

with an estimated population of 5000, 23 km south 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 ...

, in the

Chouf District Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf; ) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate ( muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east of Beirut, the region comprises a narrow coastal stri ...

via a 20-minute drive along the Beirut to Sidon highway south of the capital. In

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n times, it was known as

Porphyreon Porphyreon was a town in the late Roman province of Phoenice Prima, and a bishopric that was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of that province, Tyre. It corresponds to present-day Jieh, Lebanon. History Porphyreon is described in the ''Notiti ...

and was a thriving natural seaport, which still functions today. The town is also known for its seven-kilometre sandy beach, which is a rarity along Lebanon's rocky coastline. The Biblical prophet

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

was said to have landed on its shores when he was spat out of the giant fish described in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

relaxed on its shore preparing for the attack on Tyre. St Peter and St Paul also walked through Jieh several times. In modern times Jieh took some of the harshest blows of the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

that raged from 1975 to 1990. Being a coastal town made it vulnerable to the countless numbers of

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

raids on the area, as well as

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i army invasions during the 1980s, , the worst being on January 20, 1976. During the war, the

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party () is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon Governorate, especially the Chouf District. Founded by Kamal Jumblatt in 1949, the party ...

controlled the seaport at Jieh. In March 1989, General Michel Aoun established a blockade of the port, which resulted in artillery exchanges between his forces and a combination of PSP,

Lebanese Resistance Regiments The Lebanese Resistance Regiments (, or AMAL), also designated Lebanese Resistance Battalions, Lebanese Resistance Detachments, Lebanese Resistance Legions and Battalions de la Resistance Libanaise (BRL), but simply known by its Arabic acronym ...

, and the

Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

in Beirut and the

Chouf Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf; ) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate ( muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east of Beirut, the region comprises a narrow coastal stri ...

. At least 90 people were killed and several hundred wounded. Jieh is being rebuilt, albeit at a slower pace than the nearby capital city of Beirut.

Archaeological site

The town houses some of Lebanon's finest archaeological ruins, some of them buried under modern buildings, others waiting to be dug up by excavators, and others having already been removed and placed in museums. Mosaics depicting the story of the Prophet

and the giant fish in the

Book of Jonah The Book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and an individual book in the Christian Old Testament where it has four chapters. The book tells of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah, son of Amitt ...

have been found in churches dug from underground over time. Examples of these are the grand floor mosaics from the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

period, which were so big that trucks were needed to transport them to museums, as was the case with the fine collection owned by

Walid Jumblatt Walid Kamal Jumblatt (; born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese politician who was the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party from 1977 until 2023. A Druze and former militia commander, Jumblatt led the Lebanese National Resistance Front, allying ...

, a local politician, which is on display at his

Beiteddine Palace Museum The Beiteddine Palace Museum is installed in the old stables, which once housed riders and horses of the Beiteddine Palace in Beiteddine, Lebanon. The museum displays a collection of Byzantine mosaics. The majority of them come from the site of ...

. Jieh has recently been the scene of accidental excavations of a Byzantine-era Christian church and surrounding tombs which had been buried underground for centuries. Nothing is being done to protect them at the moment due to political hearings on the matters of the people versus the government - landlords' rights to preserve historical artifacts found on said property with viable direct ancestry value and or documentation. The people versus the government landlords' rights to preserve historical artifacts found on the said property which directly pertain to all local populous religious beliefs, practices, and or scriptures or text, all of which fall under the world preservation of historical and archaeological acts of 1971. During the

2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon On 1 October 2024, Israel invaded Southern Lebanon, marking the sixth Israeli–Lebanese conflict, Israeli invasion of Lebanon since 1978. The invasion took place after nearly 12 months of Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present), conflict ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites including the Jiyeh – Porphyreon archaeological site to safeguard it from

damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

Archaeological research

In 1914,

Georges Contenau Georges Contenau (April 9, 1877 – March 22, 1964) was a French archeologist, curator, orientalist and religious historian who was an expert in the field of culture and religion of the ancient civilizations of the Near and Middle East. Life Con ...

located the

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, the residential quarter, and the necropolis. The first excavations on the site were carried out in 1975 by Roger Saidah from the

Directorate General of Antiquities The Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA; ) is a Lebanese government directorate, technical unit of the Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Cu ...

. They uncovered most of the domestic architecture from the Byzantine period. The outbreak of civil war in Lebanon interrupted the work. The mosaics found during these excavations are currently on display in the museum in Beiteddine. Since 2004, research in Jiyeh has been conducted by the Polish-Lebanese archaeological expedition from the

Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA UW; ) operates as an independent research institute of the University of Warsaw under the present name since 1990. It is dedicated to organizing, implementing and coordin ...

headed by Prof. Tomasz Waliszewski.

Polish-Lebanese archaeological expedition in Jiyeh (Porphyreon)

The Polish-Lebanese Archaeological Mission from the PCMA UW conducts its research in cooperation with the DGA and the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw. In 2004, salvage excavations were conducted due to the construction of a hotel in the area of the necropolis. The team documented graves from the Roman and Byzantine periods, as well as large numbers of Hellenistic and Roman pottery vessels, both imported and locally produced. In the following years, work focused on the basilica and the residential quarter. Test pits in the basilica confirmed its use in the 5th century, although it could have been built earlier, i.e., in the 4th century. About 100 rooms dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods were excavated in the residential quarter. Test pits dug in some of the houses revealed ancient layers, as well as earlier ones – from the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Three main phases of the functioning of the domestic architecture were distinguished: # Iron Age II (8th–7th century BC) # Persian-Hellenistic-Roman period (5th century BC–2nd century AD) # Late Antique period (4th–5th century AD)

The analysis of finds, mainly coins and ceramics, suggests that the settlement was abandoned in the 7th century. A pottery production center and remains of a wine production installation were discovered to the north of the residential quarter. The economy of the settlement could have been based on trade in locally-produced goods, such as olive oil, wine, pottery vessels. Fishing was also practiced, as attested by the equipment discovered on the site: fishing hooks and net sinkers.

Religion

Jieh is home to many religious groups, mostly

Maronite Christians Maronites (; ) are a 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 resided near Mount ...

and

Shia Muslims 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 ...

with some

Melkites 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", referring ...

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

and

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

. The Shiite Muslims of this area mainly occupy the high rise section of Nabi Younes (Prophet Jonah) located in the central western and southern parts of the town on the coast. While the northern and central eastern area is occupied by the Christian and Sunni populous in the section of St. George's and Our Lady of the Star's Cathedrals. The rebuilding of Jieh's two churches took effect a few years after the civil war ended during the construction boom. On the left below is Our Lady of the Star, Maronite Catholic Church whose construction finished in 2017, as well as the new St Georges Church featured to the right. Many Christian families who fled the town of Jieh have sent money back to rebuild Our Lady of the Star, which is now completed and regularly hosts weddings and other religious events. The rebuilding of St George's has also begun. While the original mosque of the town built directly over the tomb of the Nabi Younes to safe-guard the tomb, built around a century ago by the El Hajj family (one of the predominant Shia families in the village) still lies in ruins due to a dispute between Shia and Sunni factions on the placement and erection of the new facility. This has caused strife between all the religious denominations in the region. More now than ever since Hezbollah stepped into the middle of the dispute and erected a Shia mosque without finding a common ground between both Muslim parties and the consent on placement of the facility with the Christian denominations in the area to confirm that the voluminous call to prayers would not be a hindrance upon their religious practices. Jieh also hosts many resorts that take advantage of the 7km of sandy beaches as well as the towns close proximity to Beirut that allows for many people staying in Beirut to easily visit for the day. Image:Jieh2003.jpg, Jieh Scenic View, 2003 Image:OurLadyOfTheStar jieh.jpg, Our Lady of the Star Maronite Catholic Church under construction, November 2006 Image:OurLadyOfTheStar jieh2.jpg, Our Lady of the Star Maronite Catholic Church Image:St Georges jieh.jpg, St Georges Maronite Catholic Church under construction, Dec 2007 On the 28 October 2010, St George's Catholic Cemetery was the subject of an attack by graveyard vandals. An exhumed body in the lone casket of one of the tombs was removed, dragged out of its resting place and disfigured.

Tourism

Jieh's main tourist attraction is its 7 km sand strip hosting a set of clean sandy beaches. Close to Beirut and still clean to swim in, Jieh is a go-to destination for beach lovers who like the sand, the sun, and some waves away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The mainly privately owned beach resorts that occupy the beach front range in themes that cater for all classes of society, including women's only beaches.

Education

Jieh is a town that houses St Charbel College. The convent of Saint Charbel and the attached High School are run by the

Lebanese Maronite Order The Baladites, formally known as the Lebanese Maronite Order (; abbreviated OLM), is a monastic order among the Levant-based, Catholic Maronite Church, which from the beginning has been specifically a monastic Church. The order was founded in 1 ...

of Monks. It was the direct result of repeated demands by the local residents and two decades of planning and negotiations. Construction was completed in 1965. The mission of this project was to provide education to students of different faiths from Jieh and neighboring villages in the Chouf district south of Beirut. The convent and school were lightly damaged during the 1975 war and then evacuated in 1985 when the Christian population of the town was forced out. This time the structure sustained heavy damages and for the next six years became a living quarter for Palestinian refugees. Renovations started in 1991 after generous contributions from charitable organizations, local politicians and residents. As soon as the work was completed, 600 students enrolled of whom only 18 were Christians. Today both the convent and the school are fully restored and became a center of culture and education for students from the southern suburbs of Beirut to Sidon.

Power

Jieh is home to Lebanon's largest and oldest thermal power plant. Located on the southern tip of Jieh's border with neighbouring town Wadi El Zeina, this power station houses 5 units; the first two Toshiba units having been installed in 1970, while the three remaining turbines from the Brown Boveri Company in Switzerland were put into service later on between 1980 and 1981. The Toshiba units produce 65MW while the Brown Boveri Company (BBC) units each produce 72MW of electricity, totalling 346MW for the Jieh plant when at full capacity. Although this is only the second highest total capacity after Zouk from Lebanon's 7 thermal power plants, it must be commended for being the first and only one from during the 1970s and mid 1980s until the first unit at Zouk was put into service in 1984. The power station at Jieh was closed for a period after the Israeli invasion in 1982, and so technicians who came to repair the older Toshiba turbines were deterred away from the country due to kidnappings of foreigners and the raging of the civil war. Likewise, the three Brown Boveri turbines had managed to get some service from BBC's India technicians rather than from the Switzerland headquarters. This meant that only minor repairs could be done, and so the generators could not run at full capacity. In 1982, the Lebanese Pound fell by a factor of 600 and so Electricite du Liban, Lebanon's government owned power company, could not afford to buy spare parts from overseas for its power stations. Hundreds of communities and ghettos across the country also refused (and still refuse) to pay electricity bills that funded the maintenance. This, as well as significant electricity piracy, resulted in deteriorating conditions of the power plant at Jieh. On 19 August 1997 the power station was hit by Israeli airstrikes. It was the culmination of a spike in violence which began the day before when two teenagers were killed by a roadside bomb near Jezzine. In response, 18 August, the

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; , ), also known as the Lahad Army () or as the De Facto Forces (DFF), was a Christianity in Lebanon, Christian-dominated militia in Lebanon. It was founded by Lebanese military officer Saad H ...

had shelled Sidon, killing seven people. This led to Hizbullah firing a barrage of rockets into northern Israel and hence the airstrike. On 23 July 1999 the Lebanese headquarters of the Cellis telephone company in Jeih was destroyed by an Israeli airstike. The strike was part of two extensive air raids on 24/25 July which left Beirut without electricity, five bridges on the Beirut to Sidon road destroyed, as well as a radio station in

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

demolished. Eight Lebanese were killed and an estimated $52 million damage caused. Two Israeli were killed by

Hizbullah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

rockets in Kiryat Shimona.Middle East International No 603, 2 July 1999; Publisher

Christopher Mayhew Christopher Paget Mayhew, Baron Mayhew (12 June 1915 – 7 January 1997) was a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1974, when he left the Labour Party to join the Liberals. In 1981 ...

; Michael Jansen, Beirut, pp.4-5; Reinoud Leenders, Beirut, pp.5&7 Foreign investment, however, helped revive the plant numerous times until presently, although today the main problem is the lack of adequate fuel supply from the government that is needed to run the plant. Recent deals with the

Arab states of the Persian Gulf The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

have been sought to receive discounted fuel to ensure good supply to the power plants. According to current news articles, Jieh's power plant is undergoing extensive maintenance due to neighbouring Syria's recent cut of power supply to parts of Lebanon, meaning that the Jieh plant is on its way to full service again. The July 2006 war between the Hezbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces resulted in the fuel stores at the power plant being bombed, leading to a catastrophic environmental disaster with crude

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

ing into the sea. On Friday July 14 at around 3am, the Jieh power plant was struck by missiles from navy destroyers off the Lebanese coast aimed at one of its six fuel tanks. It was hit once more the next day when two bridges on the main highway in Jieh were also destroyed by missile attacks. Ongoing black smoke continued to rise from the plant for weeks after the attack as the nearby tankers exploded one after the other from the heat while the remaining tens of thousands of litres of oil spilled endlessly into the Mediterranean sea.

Environmental Problems

As a result of crude violations of the environment directly by the council of

Barja Barja (, also known as Barja al-Chouf) is a town and municipality in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. Barja is situated near the Mediterranean coast, 34 kilometers south of Beirut and at the midway point between the l ...

up in the nearby mountains, the Jieh coastline has been subject to the continual release of unclean water through the Barja to Jieh sewerage canal. This canal routinely dumps Barja's human faeces and other liquid waste into Jieh's coastal waters and directly affects tourism and the environment in this town. There have also recently been plans to build a landfill in Jiyyeh. This has met some hard opposition by some government ministers and angry locals who don't want their town being turned into a garbage dump, and so at the moment the solution to the problem is not quite clear.

Jiyeh Power Station Oil Spill

The power station oil spill from a July 14-15th 2006 Israeli airstrike released over 16,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Mediterranean sea and threatened marine life along the coast of Lebanon, mainly from Jieh stretching as far north as Syria and Turkey.