Deir-el-Qamar

Deir El-Qamar (rear RTL ديرالقمر, of Deir “convent” and Qamar “the Moon”) is a village of the Chouf to the Lebanon, located at 16 km of the Mediterranean coastline, with 900m of altitude. In Arab, ديرالقمر, the name means " The convent of the lune" previously it was " Dar El Qamar" who meant " The residence of Lune" , because it was a village with majority Druze. He is located beside the town of Beiteddine. Today it is a village mainly inhabited by Christians, one of the rare intact Christian village of the chouf at the end of the Guerre of Lebanon, but sadly celebrates by the famous blockade organized by the militiamans of the Socialist party Progressist of Walid Joumblatt, at the time of the war of the mountain.

Deir-el-Qamar was the capital of the Mount-Lebanon at the beginning of the 17th century under the reign of the emir Druze Fakhreddine II, until its death in 1635.

This village preserves a remarkable picturesque aspect, with typical stone houses. It is a tourist place, and it is good to be trotted in its streets. It was classified in 1945 like historic building.

It is one of the rare communes of Lebanon to have a concrete plan of town planning and to be held to with it. She suffered in October 2007 from forest fires of very great width which, without reaching the historical center, devastated the wooded surroundings and in particular the secular terraces separating the city from the Palate of Beiteddine as well as the Hill of the Cross.

Camille Chamoun, former president of Lebanon was born in this village. His/her son, Dory, are president of the municipality today. President Chamoun was regularly elected by the voices of the moderate Druzes represented by the family Hamadé. The sheiks Akl Druzes (more spiritual high ranking authority Druze) which sat during centuries with Baakline lived in exemplary harmony with the inhabitants of Deir El-Qamar and in particular at the time of the president Camille Chamoun.

History and Culture

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