Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. It is also the country's chief seaport on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains, near Tripoli. 

Beirut at sunset

A Phoenician city in ancient times called Berytus, it's name first appeared in the Tell el-Amarna tablets as early as the 14th century BC. 

The city was destroyed in 551 AD by an earthquake, which triggered a devastating tsunami. Overall large numbers of people were reported killed, with one estimate of 30,000 by Antoninus of Piacenza.

In 1110 Beirut was captured by the Crusaders under Baldwin I, and despite a siege in 1187 by Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, Beirut remained in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem until it fell in 1291 to the Muslims.

After 1517 the region became part of the Ottoman Empire, and the Druses, a Muslim sect, controlled the city. 

The Russian occupations of Beirut in 1772 and 1773 marked the first period in over 250 years that Beirut was ruled by a power other than the Ottoman Empire.

On October 8, 1918, during World War I, Beirut was occupied by the Allies, marking the end of Ottoman rule in the region. Afterward, it became part of the French mandate of Lebanon, which began in 1920. During this period, Beirut served as the capital of the state of Greater Lebanon, which included the areas of modern-day Lebanon and parts of Syria.

Lebanon gained independence from the French mandate on November 22, 1943. Following independence, Beirut remained the capital of independent Lebanon, and it continues to serve as the capital of the country to this day.

Beirut was devastated by civil war in the 1970s and 1980s and by the conflict between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli forces.

With the restoration of civil government in the early 1990s, a major reconstruction project was launched. The Beirut stock exchange reopened in January 1996 after a suspension of trading for nearly 13 years

On the afternoon of August 4, 2020, two explosions occurred at Beirut's port. The second blast was extremely powerful and caused at least 218 deaths, $15 billion in property damage, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless. It was heard in Cyprus, over 250 km (160 mi) away. The event was linked to about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been confiscated by the Lebanese government from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab of Lebanon, and his cabinet, resigned in the wake of the explosions a week later. 

Keanu Reeves, star of The Matrix, was born in Beirut.

Beirut was named the top place to visit by The New York Times in 2009.

No population census has been taken in Lebanon since 1932, and estimates of Beirut's population range from as low as 938 to as high as 2, 200,000.

Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia