- Lebanese Gastronomy -

Lebanon is a small country, averaging around 50km from east to west and 225km from north to south. It sits lengthways against the Mediterranean, sandwiched on two sides by Syria and on one side by the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel. The country forms part of the ‘fertile crescent’ - a high arc of well-watered land connecting Egypt to Iraq.

Lebanon’s three biggest cities, Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, and Tyr lie along the coastline and have their origins in Phoenician and Roman ports. Two large mountain ranges run parallel to each other down the length of the country: Mount Lebanon and the Anti Lebanon. The Mount Lebanon range runs along the coastline and in some cases the flat coastal strip is limited to a matter of meters before the land starts to climb.

The highest point in the Mount Lebanon range stands at over 3000m and is snow covered for around half the year. The mountains include various rivers, which flow down to the sea, such as (Ibrahim River) Nahr Ibrahim, (Dog River) Naher el Kaleb. The vast and fertile plateau of the Bekaa Valley runs between the two mountain ranges and forms the northern extremity of the Great Rift Valley. Along the coast, the climate is mild with hot dry summers and wet winters but in the mountains, heavy winter snow is usual.

With a population of nearly 4 million, half the country lives in Beirut, the cosmopolitan capital city, a veritable gateway of the twenty-first century to the East and the West.