ABSTRACT
Lebanon is the smallest country in the Levant. It is 210 kilometers long and 30–90 kilometers wide. The fertile coastal strip on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean is 7 kilometers wide and around 10 kilometers in the northern plain of Akkar. The largest cities lie on the coast: Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon, and Tyre. The territory is comprised mostly of the rugged mountain of the parallel ranges of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. It is bounded on the north by the Eleutherus River (Nahr al-Kabir) separating it from Syria, on the east by the Anti-Lebanon also separating it from Syria, and on the south by a line across the highlands of Galilee separating it from Israel. Between the two mountain ranges lies the Biqaa Valley.
