City Asia
Beirut
Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon. It sits on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with mountains behind it. People have lived here for thousands of years.
Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains. People have lived here since prehistoric times. The Romans built a city called Berytus here, famous for its school of law, and today Beirut is a center of universities, museums and trade.
Beirut, capital of Lebanon, has been inhabited continuously since prehistory: excavations in the 1990s uncovered Bronze Age levels and a Phoenician quarter. The Roman colony of Berytus, founded in 15 BC, held a renowned school of law from the 3rd century. Capital of the French mandate after 1918 and of independent Lebanon from 1943, the city lived through a civil war from 1975 to 1990 and a port explosion in 2020.
Photo: Wusel007, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Beirut
Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon.
It is by the sea. Behind it, mountains rise up. Tall buildings stand along the sea.
Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, a country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The city stands on the coast at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains and has a Mediterranean climate.
Beirut is home to Lebanon's government and is a center of business, with a port on the sea. It is also a city of learning: the American University of Beirut was founded here in 1866, and other universities followed.
Beirut is the capital of Lebanon and of the governorate of the same name. The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana describes it at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains on the Mediterranean coast, combining an old core of Arab and Ottoman-era quarters with newer districts in European style, and calls it the country's main administrative, commercial and financial center.
It is a center of higher education for the wider region: the American University of Beirut (1866), Université Saint-Joseph (1881), the Lebanese University (1953) and Beirut Arab University (1960). Lebanon's Central Administration of Statistics, using its 2018–2019 Labour Force and Household Living Conditions Survey, estimated the whole country's population at 4,842,000 in 2018.
- Country
- Lebanon (capital)
- Roman colony of Berytus founded
- 15 BC
- Capital of independent Lebanon
- since 1943
- American University of Beirut founded
- 1866
Museums and a university by the sea
Beirut has a big museum full of old treasures. You can see stone statues and pictures made from tiny tiles.
It also has an art museum in an old white house.
The National Museum of Beirut holds one of the most important collections of ancient objects in the region. On its ground floor stand 83 large pieces, including stone coffins called sarcophagi, mosaics, statues and carved reliefs, set out in order of their age. Small Bronze Age figures from Byblos are on show there too.
The Sursock Museum is in a villa built in 1912 by Nicolas Sursock, who gave it to the Lebanese people to be a museum of modern art. It opened in 1961. In Ras Beirut is the campus of the American University of Beirut, whose first building, College Hall, was begun in 1871.
The National Museum of Beirut, which describes its archaeological collection as one of the most important, shows 83 major pieces on its ground floor (sarcophagi, mosaics, statues and bas-reliefs) in chronological order; it describes its collection of anthropoid sarcophagi as the largest in the world. Bronze Age male figurines from Byblos are among its displays.
The Sursock Museum occupies the 1912 villa of Nicolas Sursock, one of the few remaining examples of Beirut's 18th- and 19th-century mansions in Venetian and Ottoman style, which he left to the public as a museum of modern and contemporary art; inaugurated in 1961, it holds more than 1,500 works and 30,000 photographs, postcards and manuscripts. The American University of Beirut, chartered in 1863 as the Syrian Protestant College, opened with 16 students on 3 December 1866 and took its present name in 1920.
- National Museum of Beirut
- 83 large pieces on the ground floor: sarcophagi, mosaics, statues and reliefs
- Sursock Museum
- 1912 villa; museum since 1961; reopened 2023
- College Hall, first building of AUB's campus
- cornerstone laid 7 December 1871
Five thousand years by the sea
People have lived in Beirut since very long ago. The Romans built a city here, with a famous school.
Later, Beirut became the capital of Lebanon.
Beirut is very old. Diggers working in the city in the 1990s found remains from the Bronze Age and a neighborhood from Phoenician times. The town is mentioned in writings from about 3,500 years ago. In 15 BC the Romans founded a colony here called Berytus, and from the 200s it had a famous school of law. A strong earthquake in 551 damaged the city.
Later, Arab, Crusader and Ottoman rulers held Beirut. After the First World War it became the capital of lands under French control, and in 1943 the capital of independent Lebanon. From 1975 to 1990 a civil war badly damaged the city, and in 2020 a huge explosion at the port damaged many nearby neighborhoods. Afterward, UNESCO and others helped repair schools, museums and old buildings.
Excavations in the 1990s revealed Mousterian, Neolithic and Bronze Age levels and an important Phoenician quarter. Ancient Berit is recorded from the 15th century BC in close contact with Egypt. Rome founded the Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus in 15 BC; it became a center of trade and silk making, and from the 3rd century the seat of a renowned school of law. A violent earthquake in 551 began its decline. Arab forces took the city in 635, Crusaders held it from 1110 (except 1187–1197) and built a castle whose foundations were found in the 1990s, and Ottoman officials governed it directly from 1763.
Occupied by French forces in 1918, Beirut became the capital of the French mandates of the Levant and then, in 1943, of independent Lebanon. The civil war of 1975 to 1990 destroyed the central market area and left the city divided by a front line until its end. On 4 August 2020 explosions at the port damaged many buildings, among them historic buildings and schools; UNESCO's Li Beirut initiative then helped repair schools, heritage buildings and museums.
- Roman Berytus, with its school of law
- colony founded 15 BC; law school from the 3rd century
- Capital of the French mandates of the Levant
- from 1918
- Civil war
- 1975 to 1990
An old port and a railway station
Ships have come to Beirut's port for a very long time.
The city also has an old train station. There are plans to turn it into a park and a place for artists.
Trade has passed through Beirut since Roman times, and the city still has a port on its northern shore.
In the Mar Mikhael neighborhood stands an old railway station from 1894. It was abandoned during the civil war and damaged again in 2020. In 2023 UNESCO and Italy agreed to restore it as a green public space and a place for artists.
Roman Berytus was a center of trade and silk making. The port of Beirut lies on the city's northern shore; it was the site of the explosions of 4 August 2020.
The Mar Mikhael train station, an industrial heritage site from 1894, was abandoned during the civil war and hit by the 2020 blasts. Under an agreement signed in July 2023, Italy agreed to fund UNESCO's restoration of its industrial heritage and the creation of a green public space and a platform for artists, in agreement with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport's Railway and Public Transport Authority.
- Mar Mikhael train station
- dates from 1894
- Station restoration agreement (UNESCO and Italy)
- July 2023
- Schools repaired through Li Beirut
- 280 educational institutions
Rainy winters and dry summers
In Beirut, almost all the rain falls in winter.
In summer it hardly rains at all.
Beirut has a Mediterranean climate, with nearly all its rain from October to April. The World Meteorological Organization's averages for 1981 to 1990 show about 191 millimeters of rain in January, the wettest month.
From June to September almost no rain falls: July gets only about 0.3 millimeters. Over a whole year, about 825 millimeters of rain fall.
The WMO record for Beirut gives monthly precipitation only (1981–1990), with no temperature normals. The total is about 826 mm a year, almost all of it from October to April: January (190.9 mm), December (163.8 mm) and February (133.4 mm) are the wettest months.
The summer is almost completely dry: June 1.5 mm, July 0.3 mm, August 0.4 mm and September 2.3 mm. Rain returns in October (60.2 mm) and November (100.6 mm). The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana describes the city's climate as Mediterranean.
- January rainfall (WMO, 1981–1990)
- about 191 mm
- July rainfall (same period)
- about 0.3 mm
- Rain in a year (sum of the monthly averages)
- about 825 mm
A city of learning and art
Many students come to Beirut to learn at its universities.
The city has art museums too. One of them was fixed after it was damaged, and it opened again.
Beirut is a city of students. The American University of Beirut alone has more than 8,000 students, and the city has several other universities.
Art matters here too. The Sursock Museum shows paintings, sculptures and tapestries, and it holds about 30,000 old photographs, postcards and manuscripts. Damaged in 2020, it was repaired with help from Italy and UNESCO and reopened in May 2023.
The American University of Beirut, founded on the American liberal-arts model, has more than 8,000 students and 800 faculty members; its schools of medicine (1867), pharmacy (1871) and nursing (1905) grew from the college of 1866.
The Sursock Museum's permanent collection holds more than 1,500 paintings, sculptures, tapestries and installations, with some 30,000 photographs, postcards and manuscripts. Its rehabilitation after the 2020 blasts, completed with €1 million from Italy through UNESCO after a first phase supported by France and ALIPH, allowed it to reopen in late May 2023.
- Students at the American University of Beirut
- over 8,000
- Sursock Museum collection
- over 1,500 works and 30,000 photographs, postcards and manuscripts
- Sursock Museum reopened
- May 2023
Beirut on the map
Find Beirut on the globe.
It is in Lebanon, in Asia. Look at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
Beirut is on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, in western Asia. The city sits on the coast, and the Lebanon Mountains rise behind it.
On a map of the city, the port lies on the northern shore. The American University's campus is in Ras Beirut, to the west, and the National Museum is a little inland.
Beirut lies at about 33.9° N and 35.5° E on Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains. Its port is on the northern shore of the city; the American University of Beirut lies to the west in Ras Beirut, while the National Museum and the Sursock Museum stand east of the old center.
The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana describes an old core of Arab and Ottoman-era quarters and a newer part built in European style.
- Latitude
- about 33.9° north
- Longitude
- about 35.5° east
- Setting
- Mediterranean coast, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains
Amazing facts
-
Long ago, Beirut had a famous school where people learned the law.
From the 200s, Roman Berytus had a famous school of law.
From the 3rd century, Roman Berytus was the seat of an important school of law, besides being a center of trade and silk making.
-
Beirut's big university began with just 16 students.
The American University of Beirut opened on 3 December 1866 with a first class of 16 students. Today it has more than 8,000.
Chartered by New York State in 1863 as the Syrian Protestant College, the school opened with 16 students in 1866 and became the American University of Beirut in 1920.
-
An art museum in Beirut is in an old house from 1912.
Nicolas Sursock gave his 1912 villa to the Lebanese people to become a museum of modern art. It opened in 1961.
The Sursock Museum, inaugurated in 1961 in Nicolas Sursock's 1912 villa, is one of the few surviving Beirut mansions in the Venetian-Ottoman style.
-
Diggers found an old Phoenician neighborhood under Beirut.
Excavations in the 1990s found a Phoenician neighborhood and much older Bronze Age remains under Beirut's market district.
Excavations in the 1990s revealed Mousterian, Neolithic and Bronze Age levels and a Phoenician quarter in the markets area, and the foundations of a Crusader castle.
Words to know
- capital
- the city where a country's government meets
- colony
- a town set up by people from another place, who keep ties to their homeland
- sarcophagus
- a stone coffin, often carved, from long ago
- mosaic
- a picture made from many small pieces of colored stone or glass
- excavation
- careful digging to find things left by people long ago
- port
- a place on the coast where ships load and unload
Discovery challenge
-
Beirut is the capital of which country?
Beirut is the capital city of which country?
Beirut became the capital of which independent country in 1943?
- Lebanon
- Greece
- Morocco
Show the answer
Lebanon
Lebanon! Beirut is its capital.
Lebanon, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.
Lebanon, independent since 1943.
-
Which sea is next to Beirut?
Beirut lies on the shore of which sea?
On which sea's eastern shore does Beirut stand?
- The Mediterranean Sea
- The Caribbean Sea
- The North Sea
Show the answer
The Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea.
The Mediterranean Sea, with the Lebanon Mountains behind the city.
The Mediterranean, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains.
-
Who built a city called Berytus here long ago?
Which people founded the colony of Berytus in 15 BC?
Which empire founded the colony of Berytus, later famous for its school of law?
- The Romans
- The Vikings
- The Aztecs
Show the answer
The Romans
The Romans! They built a city with a famous school.
The Romans, in 15 BC.
The Romans; its law school flourished from the 3rd century.
-
When does it rain most in Beirut?
In which season does almost all of Beirut's rain fall?
According to WMO records, when does Beirut get nearly all its rain?
- Summer
- Winter
- It rains the same all year
Show the answer
Winter
Winter! Summer is dry.
Winter. January is the wettest month and July the driest.
October to April; June to September together get under 5 mm.
-
What can you see at the National Museum of Beirut?
What does the National Museum of Beirut show on its ground floor?
Which kind of objects does the National Museum of Beirut say it holds the world's largest collection of?
- Old stone coffins and statues
- Race cars
- Space rockets
Show the answer
Old stone coffins and statues
Old stone coffins, statues and tile pictures.
Ancient sarcophagi, mosaics, statues and carved reliefs.
Anthropoid sarcophagi, stone coffins carved in human form.
Nearby places
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Watch
Landmark
Byblos
Byblos, on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon, is one of the oldest towns in the world where people have lived without a break. Its ruins stack up like layers of a cake: fishermen's huts, Phoenician temples and walls, a Roman theater and a Crusader castle. The Phoenician alphabet developed here.
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Watch
Landmark
Baalbek
Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, has some of the largest and best-preserved Roman temples ever built. For more than two centuries, builders raised enormous temples on a platform made of giant stone blocks. In a quarry nearby lies a carved block of about 1,650 tons that was never moved.
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Watch
City
Damascus
Damascus, the capital of Syria, grew beside a river in a green oasis at the edge of the desert. People have lived there for thousands of years, and many scholars think it may be the oldest city in the world that has been lived in all the time. Its walled Old City, with its Great Mosque, markets and courtyard houses, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Watch
Landmark
Umayyad Mosque
The Umayyad Mosque, also called the Great Mosque of Damascus, was built between 705 and 715 by the ruler al-Walid I. Britannica calls it the earliest stone mosque still standing. It is one of the largest mosques in the world, with a vast courtyard, a long prayer hall and walls that once shone with mosaics.
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Watch
Landmark
Krak des Chevaliers
Krak des Chevaliers is a castle on a high ridge in western Syria. A group of knights, the Hospitallers, rebuilt it between 1142 and 1271, and later the Mamluks added to it. Its two rings of walls and round towers make it, UNESCO says, one of the best-preserved castles of the Crusader period.
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Watch
City
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan, built on steep hills around a valley high on a plateau. Long ago it was a Roman city called Philadelphia, and its Roman theater, carved into a hillside, still holds about 6,000 people. Today the city spreads across the hills, with houses faced in pale stone. About 4.6 million people lived in Amman Governorate at the end of 2021.
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Watch
Landmark
Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock stands on a wide raised plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was finished in 691 or 692, about 1,330 years ago, which makes it the oldest Islamic monument still standing. Its eight walls are covered in marble and mosaics, and its gilded dome, about 20 meters across, covers a large rock that is deeply important to Muslims.
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Landmark
Western Wall
The Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, is the only remaining part of the huge wall that once held up the platform of the ancient Jewish Temple. More than 2,000 years old, it is a place of prayer and pilgrimage for Jewish people, and visitors come from all over the world.
Explore next
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Watch
Country
Lebanon
Lebanon is a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Snowcapped mountains rise steeply behind its narrow coast, and its coast holds some of the oldest settlements in the world, such as Byblos. Arabic is the official language, and the capital is Beirut.
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Watch
Landmark
Byblos
Byblos, on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon, is one of the oldest towns in the world where people have lived without a break. Its ruins stack up like layers of a cake: fishermen's huts, Phoenician temples and walls, a Roman theater and a Crusader castle. The Phoenician alphabet developed here.
-
Watch
Landmark
Baalbek
Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, has some of the largest and best-preserved Roman temples ever built. For more than two centuries, builders raised enormous temples on a platform made of giant stone blocks. In a quarry nearby lies a carved block of about 1,650 tons that was never moved.
-
Watch
City
Damascus
Damascus, the capital of Syria, grew beside a river in a green oasis at the edge of the desert. People have lived there for thousands of years, and many scholars think it may be the oldest city in the world that has been lived in all the time. Its walled Old City, with its Great Mosque, markets and courtyard houses, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Watch Geography Capital cities A capital is the city where a country's government is based. Many capitals grew up over hundreds of years beside rivers and trade routes. A few, like Brasília and Canberra, were built from scratch, and some countries share out their capital's jobs among two or three cities.
- Watch Geography Coasts and beaches Coasts are where land meets the sea, and they are always changing. Waves wear away rocky cliffs into caves, arches and stacks. Rivers and waves carry sand along the shore to build beaches. Beach sand can come from rocks worn down over millions of years, from volcanoes, from tiny shells, and even from fish!
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Watch
City
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan, built on steep hills around a valley high on a plateau. Long ago it was a Roman city called Philadelphia, and its Roman theater, carved into a hillside, still holds about 6,000 people. Today the city spreads across the hills, with houses faced in pale stone. About 4.6 million people lived in Amman Governorate at the end of 2021.
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Watch
City
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It began in the 1700s as a small settlement around fresh water on an island, guarded by a coral-stone watchtower. Before oil, it relied on fishing and pearl diving; since the 1960s, money from oil has turned it into a city of towers. An official estimate gave the city about 1.75 million people in 2023.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Beirut on the eastern Mediterranean coast, below the Lebanon Mountains.
- Describe how archaeologists learn about a city's past by digging beneath it.
- Name some of the peoples who ruled Beirut over thousands of years.
- Read monthly rainfall figures to describe a dry-summer climate.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Beirut has been rebuilt many times over thousands of years. What makes people want to rebuild a city instead of moving away?
- Nicolas Sursock gave his house to the public as a museum. Why might someone give something they own to everyone?
- Archaeologists found old neighborhoods under modern Beirut. What might someone find under your town in a thousand years?
Try at home or in class
- Make a layered dig: in a clear container, bury small objects in layers of sand and soil, then dig down carefully and note which layer each came from.
- Make a mosaic: cut colored paper into small squares and glue them onto card to make a picture, like the ancient mosaics in Beirut's museum.
- Make a rain chart for Beirut: draw a bar for each month's rain and color the wet winter months and the dry summer months.
Key vocabulary: capital, colony, sarcophagus, mosaic, excavation, port
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Beirut , Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat)
- Lebanon: civil war , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- UNESCO launches Beirut recovery fund for culture, heritage and education , UN News
- UNESCO completed the rehabilitation of the iconic Sursock museum damaged by Beirut port explosions , United Nations in Lebanon
- Beirut's iconic museum and train station restored by UNESCO and Italy , ITB Travel Industry News
- Musée National de Beyrouth , National Museum of Beirut
- History of AUB , American University of Beirut
- Central Administration of Statistics, Lebanon (home page indicators) , Central Administration of Statistics, Lebanon
- Beirut: climatological information , World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Information Service
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.