X-Nico

unusual facts about Beqaa valley


Zaki Nassif

Born in Machghara, the largest town in the western Beqaa Valley in 1918 and was involved in music and country folk poetry (zagal, maannaa, 'ataba, mijana, abu el zuluf, etc.) at an early age.


Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid

While the establishment of the madina ("city") of Anjar ("Ayn al-Jarr") in the Beqaa Valley is normally attributed to al-Walid I, other sources, including the Byzantine Greek chronicler Theophanes the Confessor and contemporary historian Jere L. Bacharach, credit Abbas for the city's founding in the fall of 714.

As-Sa'iqa

This again led to mass-defections of Palestinians from the movement (Harris quotes the Syrian-aligned Amal Movement as complaining that the Syrian-backed Palestinian forces sent to attack the PLO were "Abu Musa in the Biqa'" but "become Abu nothing in the Shuf and Abu Ammar on arrival in Beirut"), and reportedly its ranks were filled with non-Palestinian Syrian army recruits.

Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners

FLLF operations came to a sudden halt just prior to the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, only to be resumed the following year with four huge car-bomb attacks: the first one on 28 January 1983 struck a PLO headquarters at Chtaura in the Syrian-controlled Beqaa Valley, killing 40, coupled by a second on 3 February at West Beirut that devastated the Palestine Research Center offices and left 20 people dead.

Islamic Jihad Organization

Based at Baalbek in the Beqaa valley, the group aligned 200 Lebanese Shiite militants financed by Iran and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ contingent previously sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to fight the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Nomadic pastoralism

Henri Fleisch tentatively suggested the Shepherd Neolithic industry of Lebanon may date to the Epipaleolithic and that it may have been used by one of the first cultures of nomadic shepherds in the Beqaa valley.


see also

Fortress of Niha

Carved into the rock of a cliff overlooking the Bisri and 'Aray valley, the Fortress of Niha has been monitoring the road between Sidon and the Beqaa valley.

Sultan Yacoub

During the battle, a column of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored vehicles were ambushed at a narrow pass near the Beqaa Valley by the Syrians.