Zahle
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- This article is about a town in Lebanon. You may also be looking for Carl Theodor Zahle, a Danish politician.
| Zahlé زحلة |
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| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Governorate | Beqaa |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Assad Zogaib |
| Area | |
| - Total | 19.8 km² (7.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2006) | |
| - Total | 100,000 |
| Time zone | EST (UTC+2) |
| - Summer (DST) | EST (UTC+3) |
Zahlé (Arabic: زحلة; also transliterated Zahlah or Zahleh) is the capital of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. With around 100,000 inhabitants[1], which makes it the 8th largest city in Lebanon. The population is mostly Christian. Zahle is called the bride of the Bekaa Valley. It is famous for its clean air, its resorts and its food.
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[edit] General
The city is situated 45 km to the East of the Lebanese capital Beirut. It is the only predominantly Catholic city in the Middle East. Famous for its old churches, outdoor restaurants, unique food and a water powered ice factory in Wadi El Arayesh. It's possible to drive a car from Zahlé to Beirut in 30 to 60 minutes, depending on traffic. Zahle is on average 900 meters above sea level.
[edit] Zahlé in History
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Zahlé was founded about 300 years ago in an area whose past reaches back some five millennia. In the early 18th century the new town was divided into three separate quarters, each of which had its own governor. The city enjoyed a brief period as the region's first independent state in the 19th century when it had its own flag and anthem. Zahlé was burned in 1777 and 1791, and it was burned and plundered in 1860. But during the rule of the Mutasarrifiah, Zahlé began to regain its prosperity. The railroad line which came through in 1885 improved commerce and the town became the internal "port" of the Beqaa and Syria. It was also the center of agriculture and trade between Beirut and Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad. Considered the birthplace of the Lebanese army, Zahlé has played a major role in the political life of the country.
[edit] Zahlé war
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The Battle of Zahle
Zahle, the capital of Bekaa Province in eastern Lebanon, had a population of some 150,000 which was primarily Greek Catholic, and it was in the heart of the Syrian occupied zone of Lebanon and lay on the vital Beirut-Damascus highway. Throughout the war Zahle suffered many sieges and attacks by leftist and Palestinian forces but its people always managed to hold out, fighting alongside the small contingent of Lebanese Front militia that were based there.
The location of Zahle made it of such importance that the Syrians felt they had to control the city and needed a reason to station their troops there. In December 1980, the Palestinian forces around Zahle were incited by the Syrians to shell the city and on the 19th heavy fighting broke out between the Syrians and the small Lebanese Forces contingent after the Syrians sent a patrol down the Zahle Boulevard, the patrol was attacked and five Syrian soldiers and one Syrian Major were killed. Although the Syrian command acknowledged sending the patrol into Zahle and the resulting deaths as accidental, Syria demanded the surrender of the persons involved in the incident to its command. A forty-eight-hour ultimatum was served to the Zahle leadership and also to the Phalangist and National Liberal Party (Lebanon) commanders of the district. When a unanimously negative reply was returned, Syrian forces besieged the city with troops and tanks under artillery cover. The incident at Zahle enabled the Syrians to take advantage of the prevailing instability in the rightist coalition and the weakness of the Beirut government. In day-long battles, the Syrian forces were repulsed time and again as both General Said Taiyan and Syria's Defense Minister, Major-General Mustafa Tlas, were rushed to the scene to study the unexpectedly strong resistance. At the same time, Bashir Gemayel put his forces on full alert; however, he held the doors open for a negotiated settlement. During the fighting two Syrian helicopters were also hit as they tried to bring in reinforcements. The Lebanese Forces command rushed Guardians of the Cedars troops from Beirut in support of the local forces in Zahle.
A ceasefire was quickly imposed on December 26, 1980 and fighting soon died down but blood had been drawn.
Not wanting Zahle to be cut off from Mount Lebanon and to reduce its vulnerability to siege, the Lebanese Forces began constructing a road linking Baskinta to Zahle so as to avoid passing through Syrian held territory. The Syrians were against the construction of the road and responded by again surrounding Zahle with 2600 troops. The people of Zahle started take up arms and prepared for the inevitable Syrian assault. On April 2, 1981 Syria began bombarding the city. At the start of the battle the Syrian commander announced that his troops had moved to evict the Lebanese Forces from Zahle as it was vital for Syrian security to prevent the construction of the road between Mount Lebanon and Zahle.
On the first day of battle the Syrians tried to seize the high ground above the city but were repelled with the loss of three armored vehicles and the death of over twenty soldiers and so the next day the Syrians retaliated with an artillery barrage on east Beirut which inflicted heavy civilian casualties. For days the Syrians launched assault after assault and the city but were unable to breach the defenses of Zahle due to the stiff resistance put up by the people of Zahle themselves as well as the small number of troops stationed there. Syrian forces in the capital were redeployed to Zahle to bolster artillery fire, which was rapidly turning central Zahle into ruins. The population of Zahle refused to surrender and so it was decided by the Syrians that they would force it to submission through siege. Ghassan Tueni, Lebanon's delegate to the United Nations, called for UNIFIL forces to take over the Zahle region. As the situation grew critical, Lebanon's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Hassan al-Khalid, joined with Pope John Paul II in expressing concern over the intensive fighting. Both men reasserted the obvious fact that the conflict in Lebanon was not religious in nature.
At the start of 1981 Syria had launched its "Program of National Reconciliation", which was designed to install Sulayman Franjieh as president. Bashir Gemayel found the proposition unpalatable, but he was impotent to oppose it politically. Therefore, to strengthen his position he desperately needed a victory in Zahle. Bashir Gemayel needed to reinforce Zahle and managed to infiltrate another 100 Lebanese Forces militiamen into the city to support the forces already there and to attack Syrian positions and to shell the Syrian headquarters in the adjacent town of Chtoura.
By the last week of April, two ineffectual cease-fires had collapsed and Syrian Mig jets had strafed the outskirts of the beleaguered town. This was, apparently, an attempt to show the Phalangists that Syria still had an open option--air power. The Zahle defenders could either surrender or face annihilation by air attack. The air raid was followed by a land-based missile attack, using Soviet-made Grad rockets. The attacks drove the Lebanese Forces from the outlying city buildings, giving the Syrians their first, tentative, victory.
The town sagged under heavy fire as its defenders began to run low on food, medical supplies, and ammunition. An attempt to break out and reach the suburbs of Beirut was abruptly terminated by Syrian special forces in their distinctive tiger-patterned uniforms. Supply lines were set up from Ouyoun El Simman and Baskinta. The weather conditions were terrible with heavy snow covering the mountain peaks over which many of the supplies were brought in on foot. They were aided by tactical air power. The siege of Zahle was beginning to resemble a new version of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre.
At the end of April, the Syrians had entered into direct negotiations with the Zahle leadership and had reached a tentative accord. The agreement called for a pullback by the Syrians, the safe removal of the right-wing militiamen, and the assignment of the Lebanese police to secure the town. The Phalangists considered the agreement a victory, for it ended Syrian attempts to infiltrate the city.
However, Syria would not accept a plan that insulted its prerogatives and disputed its power and authority in Lebanon. President Assad ordered artillery fire and helicopter assaults against the Phalangist fortifications. The choppers flew Syrian special forces into battle for Mt. Sannin, in the hills above Zahle, which overlooked and guarded the Bekaa Valley. The Syrian troops, rappelling downward from the choppers, ran into a group of militiamen on patrol and a fire-fight ensued. The Lebanese Front ordered its negotiating team in Zahle to cut off all talks with the Syrians. Pulling out at this point, was seen as a defeat for Syria. The Syrian Air Force went into action, strafing Gharfat al-Fransawiye, a mountain stronghold of the militia, about eight miles west of Zahle. The second air attack came on the twenty-sixth day of the conflict.
Soon afterward, the Syrian forces began to move against the hilltop emplacements above the city, which had been established and fortified by the Lebanese Forces to protect the main entrance to the city. Bashir Gemayel ordered his entombed militia to fight to the end, pledging every possible effort to reach them with additional supplies and manpower. Meanwhile, Syrian reinforcements poured into the battle, creating traffic congestion along the Beirut-Damascus highway and its arterials. The hills above Zahle became the prime targets for Syrian gunners. The town itself was completely encircled, with Syrian soldiers holding all access points under tight siege. The Lebanese Forces in Zahle had been badly mauled and battered, but their fighting spirit was undiminished. Moreover, the Syrians knew this, for they had committed approximately half their force of twenty-two thousand men to the campaign. The mountain strongholds, which overlooked Zahle, remained in rightist hands, forcing the Syrian command to send additional airborne troops into battle.
As the fighting intensified Gemayel called an urgent meeting with Begin and convinced him that the Syrians intended to follow through on the siege with an all-out attack on the Christian heartland and urged Israel to launch an air strike against the Syrians. On April 28, the Israeli cabinet convened and authorized a limited air strike, but it did so over the strident objections of Israel's intelligence chiefs, who suspected that the crisis was a Lebanese Forces ploy. Israeli fighter jets carried out the raid and downed two Syrian helicopter troop transports on Mount Sannine, a strategic mountain overlooking Zahle. The brief air battle astronomically raised tensions to a new climax by pitting the Syrians against their archenemy, the Israelis. The Syrians backed off a bit but then resumed an around-the-clock artillery bombardment of the town, pledging to leave it in total devastation, a pile of rubble for the Phalangists to sift through, if it refused to surrender.
Moreover, to counter the Israeli moves, Syria introduced at least nine antiaircraft missiles, SAM-6s, near the Riyaq air base, in the Bekaa Valley. Under the cover of the missiles, the Syrians sent land forces up Mount Sannine and took it from its defenders in heavy, bloody, close combat. The rightists were exhausted and had run out of ammunition and supplies. Zahle however, held fast, repulsing one attack after another.
As the days went on sharp differences erupted within the Lebanese Forces in Zahle as to how to best defend the city. The forces in Zahle had been unprepared for a big showdown. Fouad Abou Nader and Boutros Khawand were dispatched to settle matters as well as the commander of the LF armored battalion, Joseph Elias who was himself from Zahle and had a tough reputation. However, they failed to reconcile the field commanders.
By the time Manny Kazangian arrived, the Lebanese Forces command headquarters had been wrecked by Syrian shelling and the officers were in complete disarray. Samir Geagea decided to immediately return to Beirut and left in the middle of the night via Wadi Al Arayesh with about 40 troops who had also decided to return to Beirut, fed up with the break down of the command structure. Geagea's report stated that the city was a total military loss but Bashir Gemayel refused to abandon Zahle.
The siege of Zahle and heavy fighting continued throughout May and reached its formal end on 30th June when it was agreed that both sides would withdraw their forces. Local Lebanese Forces troops had to disarm and forces from Beirut had to leave. The security of Zahle was handed over to Lebanese government internal security forces. The Syrians would be allowed to maintain check points around Zahle to prevent the Lebanese Forces form returning. Trucks and buses were provided to evacuate the Lebanese Forces fighters and 95 returned to Beirut on 1 July 1981. Over the next couple of days the Syrians pulled out of their fortifications about the city. Failure to defeat Zahle was a humiliation for the Syrians and a victory for Bashir Gemayel. Of far greater significance, however, was the exceptionally strong resistance put forth by the right-wing militiamen. They had shown considerable strength and resourcefulness, tenacity, and spirit in blunting the Syrian thrust. For the time being, the Syrians would forgo any attempt to advance against other towns in the predominantly Christian part of northern Lebanon.
The civilian casualties were 223 killed and 765 wounded with heavy material damage. Many died due to the lack of medical supplies and as a result of the epidemics caused from the water cut off by the Syrian forces.
[edit] Zahlé's Bardouni Restaurants
The Bardouni is a river that flows out of Mount Sannine and down through Zahlé. It is also a name synonymous with Lebanon's famous mezze and the delights of outdoor dining. The Bardouni restaurant tradition began over a hundred years ago with a few simple riverside cafes. Today it is a virtual bazaar of tree-shaded eating places known as "casinos", every one more inviting than the next. Not surprisingly, competition is fierce, so each establishment outdoes itself with fountains, pools, and cooling shade to tempt potential customers. Here you can enjoy the traditional Lebanese mezze as it is served nowhere else. To add to the sense of timelessness, delicious mountain bread is baked before your eyes and a man in baggy trousers and fez is on hand to pour Lebanese coffee. He can also provide diners with a hubble-bubble (water pipe). On the cliffs above the Bardouni are the restaurants of Kaa el Reem, also known for their excellent food and atmosphere.
The river Bardaouni which crosses the city is shallow, especially during summer.
[edit] Wine and Arak
Zahlé's association with the grape is pervasive, for it lies at the heart of an area that has been making wine since early antiquity. At the city's southern entrance the statue of a graceful female personifies wine and poetry, but you don't have to look far to see evidence of the real thing. The hills north of town with names like Wadi Hadi, Harqat, Bir Ghazour and Tell Zeina are covered with the neat rows of vineyards that supply Zahle's wine and arak industries. Many of the wines have been formally recognized abroad for their fine quality–equal to some of the best in Europe.[citation needed] A tour of Zahlé's Ksara winery is a good way to see how wine and arak are made. Of special interest here are the extensive underground caves built around a natural grotto known and enlarged by the Romans
[edit] Local Celebrations
Each year between the 10th and 20th of September Zahlé mounts its week-long " Festival of the Vine", a celebration shared with the city's " Flower Festival". In a carnival-like atmosphere "Miss Vine" is elected and cars are decorated with flowers representing national symbols.
Zahlé is also famous for its Corpus Christi festival which dates back to 1825 when the town was spared the ravages of a contagious disease. Corpus Christi is celebrated on the first Thursday of June with a torch-light parade held on the eve of the festival. The next morning a mess takes place at Our Lady of Najat Church, followed by a procession of townspeople carrying the "Holy Bread" through the streets.
Christian pilgrims and tourists also visit the tower of Our Lady of Bekaa for panoramic views of the Beqaa Valley.
[edit] Meaning of name
It is speculated that the name Zahlé is derived from the Arabic verb زحل zahhala, which means to push away, to dislodge, to displace. The occasional landslides which take place in the area around the city may have been the origin of its name.[citation needed]
[edit] Zahle International Half Marathon
Overview: The Zahle international half marathon is a yearly event that takes place in zahle.It was launched in 2007,about 12,000 runners participated making it the second largest marathon in lebanon.
Races: The Zahle International Half Marathon comprises of 2 separate races, held on the same day. All races allow entry for disabled athletes.
Race coarse: The Zahle International Half Marathon course is a fully certified AIMS course.
Rules and Regulations:
The race is open to all athletes of Lebanese or foreign nationality.
The competitors must comply with age limitations. Age categories will be given a separate classification.
Runners compete in the race under their own responsibility.
Nobody can run the track without official registration. Runners without BIM running bibs will be directed off the course immediately.
Roller-skates, inline skates, bikes, baby strollers or carriages of any kind are not allowed on the Marathon course. If you are caught with any of these, you will be directed off of the route.
Please do not run with your baby or child under 11 years old. A pack of thousands of runners poses a serious risk hazard to your child or baby. As cute as you and your baby will look.
Participants under 11 years old are not covered by the insurance.
Walkers are asked to start near the end of the pack to avoid being crowded or bumped.
Pets are forbidden on the course.
Marathoners may not swap race numbers or timing chip device. Violators risk disqualification from BIM.
Please do not wear jewelry or carry precious items with you during the marathon. The BIM will not be held responsible for any lost valuables.
Participants racing in wheelchairs are required to wear helmets throughout the race.
