2021 Travel the World - Week 34

I started a 50-week series in 2019 that I called Travel the World. Each week of the series I visited a randomly-selected country, sharing bits of information about that country. I then chose one tidbit of information about that week's country as inspiration for a card. As I explored those 50 countries in 2019, I knew I would continue on until I've visited every one of the 195 countries in the world, so I continued the series in 2020 and here I am in 2021, the third year of traveling the world. 

This week's country is...

Lebanon

Lebanon is a sovereign state in Western Asia.

It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is west across from the Mediterranean Sea.

The name Lebanon is the oldest name of any country in the world. It has not been changed for over 4,000 years.

Lebanon is one of the world’s oldest countries with thousands of years of history.

The country is 30 times smaller than Poland.

Tied with Thailand, Lebanon has the world's third-highest number of public holidays. With 16 public days of holiday per year, only India and Colombia with 18 holidays have more.

Lebanon is currently shelter to some 450,000 refugees. The majority of these live in the 12 refugee camps set up in Lebanon. These refugees suffer from poverty, unemployment, bad infrastructure, and poor housing conditions.

Lebanon is one of the highest cigarette consumers in the world with over 2,000 cigarettes smoked per person each year.

Mount Lebanon is a mountain range in Lebanon which averages above 2500 m in elevation. The name of the country, in fact, comes from this mountain range.

The official language in Lebanon is Arabic. The country in nearly trilingual though, with French and English being well used in addition to Arabic.

Lebanon is the third smallest country in the Middle East after Bahrain and the Palestinian Territories.

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the country’s largest and main seaport. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, inhabited more than 5,000 years ago.

The Lebanese capital was home to the world's first law school.

There are now 42 universities in Lebanon.

Lebanon has a doctor to patient ratio of 1:10. To put that into perspective, Europe and America have a doctor to patient ratio of 1:100.

During the 1960s, Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, was known as the “Paris of the East” due to its image as a playground for the world’s most affluent tourists.

Legend has it that Beirut has been rebuilt from the ashes seven times, making it an “urban phoenix in mythology”.

In 2020, a massive explosion in Beirut killed at least 200 people, injured over 6,000 and leveled a huge area of the city. The blast – estimated at one-twentieth of that of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima – was caused by the ignition of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a port warehouse.

Lebanon's Jeita Grotto is a system of two separate, but interconnected, karstic limestone caves spanning an overall length of 5.6 miles. Few caverns in the world approach the astounding wealth or the extent of those of Jeita. In these caves and galleries, known to man since Paleolithic times, the action of water has created cathedral-like vaults beneath the wooded hills of Mount Lebanon.

Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that does not have a desert.

It does see snowfall every year and even has ski resorts that remain open for as long as three months a year.

Lebanon is the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East.

Over twice as many Lebanese live outside the country than those living within its borders.

The country's last official census was taken in 1932.

Compulsory education begins at age 6 in Lebanon and lasts for 9 years. Over 70% of the pupils are educated in private schools.

Lebanon has 140 miles of coastline.

The country has 22 rivers, all of which are non navigable. This is because they are fast-flowing, straight, and generally plunge down narrow mountain canyons to the sea.

There are over 4,440 miles of paved roads in Lebanon, including 106 miles of express roads (0.01% of all roads in the world).

There are 250 miles of railroad tracks in Lebanon.

The Lebanese work week is 48 hours long.

Agriculturally, Lebanon produces apples, grapes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, olives, tobacco, sheep, and goats.

The country's industries include tourism, banking, food processing, jewelry, textiles, mineral and chemical products, cement, oil refining, metal fabricating, and wood and furniture products.

Since 1945, it is illegal to raise any foreign flag in Lebanon.

Byblos, one of the oldest Phoenician cities, has been inhabited since the Neolithic period (10,000-4,500 BC). Its buildings date back 8000 years and demonstrate several millennia of constructions.

Lebanon receives almost 80% of its yearly rainfall between November and March.

There are over 3,000 species of flora in Lebanon.

In Lebanon, a piece of land can have two legal owners. The piece of land is owned by one and the crop growing on the land is owned by other.

Testimony from a pigeon clapper (one who claps his hands together to influence the flight patterns of nearby pigeons) is not valid in court in Lebanon. As the work of this nature is considered unethical in Lebanon, people who do this job are considered inadequate for marriage, as well.

In Lebanon "women" can get married as young as 9-years-old and "men" at the age of 13.

Lebanon is the first Arab country to permit private radio and television.

My inspiration for this week's card is based on this fact about Lebanon... There are 21 major daily newspapers that serve the audience in Lebanon. However, the media is at the mercy of political parties for funding, which is also why most of the newspapers offer a biased view of the news.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp Set: Stamping Bella Uptown Girl Nancy Reads a Newspaper stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Paper: Cougar 110# White and SU Soft Succulent CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies: MFT Stitched Rectangles and Rubbernecker Rectangle with Pierce

Embellishments: Michael's Enamel Dots