| Kefraya كفريا |
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|---|---|
| — Town — | |
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Kefraya
|
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Lebanon |
| Governorate | Beqaa Governorate |
| District | Western Beqaa District |
| Government | |
| • Time Zone | GMT +2 (UTC) |
| • - Summer (DST) | +3 (UTC) |
| • Area Code(s) | (+961) 1 |
| • Zip Code | |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Postal code | |
| Dialing code | +961 |
Kefraya (Arabic: كفريا / ALA-LC: Kifrayā) is a village in the Western Beqaa District of the Beqaa Governorate in the Republic of Lebanon, approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of Joub Jannine.[1]
It is known for its vineyards and Château Kefraya wines. Château Kefraya is the second biggest winery in the Beqaa Valley with land that extends up to 300 acres (1.2 km2) amongst the foothills of Mount Barouk, 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the town of Chtaura. The majority of the shares of the winery were bought by Druze politician Walid Jumblat from the De Bustros family in the late 1980s.[2]
Kefraya was also once home to the Qaraoun culture with a Heavy Neolithic archaeological industry prior to the Neolithic Revolution.[3][4] A very large archaeological site was discovered in the area running along both sides of the road. Good quality flint nodules were found amongst Eocene conglomerates where a Heavy Neolithic factory site was detected with a massive abundance of Levallois cores, debitage and waste littering the surface of the site. Large numbers of flint tools were collected by workers that included a variety of scrapers on flakes, kinves, axes, adzes and a segmented sickle blade.[5] The type of flint found in the area was termed Kefraya flint.[6][7]