Where to Stay in Beirut, Beyrouth

What is Beirut known for?

Beirut is known as the capital and largest city of Lebanon, the country's commercial and financial hub. Antiquity marks it. One of the oldest cities in the world, Beirut keeps the Roman Baths and the ancient site of Berytus, while the National Museum of Beirut and the Sursock Museum gather its collections above the Mediterranean coast.

What are the main landmarks in Beirut?

Beirut gathers its landmarks across the old centre and the seafront headland. Many faiths stand side by side. The Maronite Cathedral of Saint George, the Saint Elias Greek Catholic Cathedral, the Al-Majidiyyeh Mosque, and the First Armenian Evangelical Church share the centre, while the Roman Baths and the ancient site of Berytus mark its deepest past.

Museums gather the rest, from the National Museum of Beirut and the Sursock Museum to the Mim Museum and the Beirut Art Center.

What is the history of Beirut?

Beirut counts among the oldest cities in the world, settled on its Mediterranean headland since deep antiquity. Rome knew it as Berytus. Under the name Berytus the city rose as a Roman centre, and the Roman Baths still stand at its heart, while the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory traces the far older peoples who lived on this coast.

Layer settled on layer. Thousands of years of settlement left Beirut a city of many faiths, its cathedrals, churches, and mosques rising over the ruins of Berytus on the Mediterranean coast. Independence made it the capital.

Since Lebanon became independent, Beirut has stood as its capital and largest city, the commercial and financial hub of the country on the Mediterranean Sea. Its collections grew with it. The National Museum of Beirut and the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut gathered the record of the city's long past, while the Sursock Museum and the Sursock House kept the art and houses of its later years.

Monuments mark the modern city. The Martyrs' Monument stands at the centre of Beirut, and the Beirut Hippodrome and the halls of Beit Beirut carry the story of the capital into its more recent past on the Mediterranean coast.

Where is Beirut?

Beirut stands on a headland at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, jutting out into the sea. The sea wraps it. Water frames the headland on three sides, and the streets of Beirut climb from the shore across the peninsula, the city set out on its point of the Mediterranean coast at the heart of Lebanon.

What is the climate of Beirut?

Beirut holds a Mediterranean climate, softened by the sea that surrounds its headland. Summers run long and warm. Winters bring mild, wet weather off the Mediterranean Sea, the rains gathering in the cooler months, while the dry heat of summer settles over the headland of Beirut and the rest of coastal Lebanon.

How do you get to Beirut?

Beirut is the way into Lebanon, its capital reached by air and by sea on the Mediterranean coast. The sea opens the door. Most travellers arrive by air or across the water to the headland of Beirut, the capital and largest city of Lebanon, and the roads run inland from the Mediterranean coast toward the rest of the country.