Lebanon's fate has been closely connected with the development of its territorial neighbors. But in character the Lebanese mountains, which their snow covered peaks, and the fertile Mediterranean coast, are very different from desert-like region which compromises present-day Syria and its southern neighbor, the Biblical Palestine.

Lebanon is divided geographically into four distinct zones: a small coastal strip along the Mediterranean borders on the precipitous Lebanon Mountains which run from north to south and fall on the east side to the fertile high plateau of Bekaa. The Anti-Lebanon Mountains from the eastern boundary of both the Bekaa plain and the Lebanese national territory. With its 10452 square kilometers Lebanon is half the size of Wales and Monmouth.

The most important towns in Lebanon are situated along the Mediterranean coastline. Apart from  the capital Beirut, the towns are, from south to north, Tyre, Sidon, Jounieh, Jbeil, Batroun and Tripoli. Under Phoenician rule, the coastal region already flourished remarkably in the second millennium B.C. The ancient Phoenician city-states grew rich trough their long-haul trade and through the export of purple dye obtained from the purple snail. In Jbeil (the Byblos of antiquity), Sidon (Saida) and Tyre (Sur), as well as in Beirut, impressive ruins still bear witness to ancient glory. In early antiquity Phoenicia compromised only the coastal region adjoining the western slopes of the Lebanon mountains, but the Romans sometimes used the term "Phoenicia" to include also the whole Western part of Syria, with Damascus and Emesa, known today as Homs.

The Semitic peoples and European civilization owe their alphabet to the Phoenicians. The Phoenician religion, with its male god Baal and mother-goddess, was closely related to the beliefs of the neighboring Semitic peoples. However, some Phoenician mythological figures, like the beautiful Adonis who was torn to pieces by a boar, and Europa who was abducted to Crete by a bull, stimulated the imagination of the Greeks and Romans. In the ancient myth, Europa, who gave her name to the Europe and its culture, was a daughter of the King of Tyre which had once been principle Phoenician town on the Mediterranean. The most important Phoenician colony in the Western Mediterranean was Carthage, which under Hannibal became Rome's great enemy.

Pride in their Phoenician heritage is an essential element in the national consciousness of the present-day Lebanese. Their national character has been no less decisively formed by the Lebanon Mountains. These mountains have the highest winter rainfall in the Near East, and rivers flow down their sides through green valleys into the Mediterranean. The Eastern slopes of the mountains are drier and thus have less vegetation. The highest peak in the range is Qornet es Saouda in the north, 3,090 meters high; from this point the mountain range decreases in height towards the south; the Sannine peak east of Beirut is 2,630 meters high and Jabal Niha, east of Saida, only 1,860 meters. The broad characteristics of Lebanon Mountains are easy to take in, but the multiplicity of peaks, high plateau, river valleys and smaller mountains in this imposing massif on which the snow continues to lie right into the hottest summer months, make a complex picture. In the coastal plain they grow oranges, bananas and vegetables, and in the uplands apples, cherries, figs and vines. Since antiquity, peasants have tried to expand the agricultural land at their disposal by terrace cultivation.

To the east of the Lebanon Mountains the fertile Bekaa plateau runs parallel to it, with the Anti-Lebanon Mountains on its east side-the plain is 20 kilometers broad. The frontier crosses the highest point of the Hermon mountains (2,800 meters), which are continuation of the Anti-Lebanon to the south. While the Bekaa plateau, with its rich wheat fields and vineyards, has a resemblance to Southern Europe, the rugged Anti-Lebanon peaks and the adjoining Hermel region in the north show desert characteristics. Both the Lebanese Mediterranean coast and the Bekaa valley have served, ever since antiquity, as main roads to conquerors and as trade routes for caravans traveling from Egypt and Palestine to Northern Syria, or from the eh north into Palestine.

Since early Middle Ages the country's mountain valleys have been places of refuge for persecuted religious minorities. At first sight, the multiplicity of religious communities appears confusing; some Lebanese authorities count eighteen different denominations. However, the religious communities which are significant in the political life of the country are not difficult to grasp. They belong to three major religions: Christianity, Islam and the Druze faith.