Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula , [ 1 ] it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of 10, square kilometres 4, sq mi. Beirut is the country's capital and largest city. Human habitation in Lebanon dates to BC. After the seventh century, it came under the rule of different Islamic caliphates , including the Rashidun , Umayyad and Abbasid.
The 11th century saw the establishment of Christian Crusader states , which fell to the Ayyubids and the Mamluks. Lebanon came under Ottoman rule in the early 15th century. Under Ottoman sultan Abdulmejid I , the first Lebanese proto state , the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate , was established as a home for Maronite Christians , as part of the Tanzimat reforms. By , Lebanon had gained independence from Free France and established a distinct form of confessional government , with the state's major religious groups being apportioned specific political powers.
The new Lebanese state was relatively stable, [ 14 ] but this was ultimately shattered by the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War β Lebanon was also subjugated by two military occupations: Syria from to and Israel from to It has been the scene of several conflicts with Israel , of which the ongoing war marks the fourth Israeli invasion since Lebanon is a developing country , ranked th on the Human Development Index.
The World Bank has defined Lebanon's economic crisis as one of the world's worst since the 19th century. The Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary at around BC. Evidence of early settlement in Lebanon was found in Byblos , considered among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Archaeologists discovered remnants of prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons, and burial jars left by the Neolithic and Chalcolithic fishing communities who lived on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea over 7, years ago. Lebanon was part of northern Canaan , and consequently became the homeland of Canaanite descendants, the Phoenicians , a seafaring people based in the coastal strip of the northern Levant who spread across the Mediterranean in the first millennium BC.
