This article is about the country. It is bordered by to the north and east and to the south, while is west across the. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the and the facilitated and shaped of and diversity. At just 10,452 km 2 4,036 sq. Without proper , you may see. The earliest of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the , and eventually became one of the Empire's leading centers of. In the range a monastic tradition known as the was established. As the conquered the region, the held onto their religion and. However, a new religious group, the , established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the , the Maronites re-established contact with the and asserted their communion with Rome. The ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the from 1516 to 1918. Following the collapse of the empire after , the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the. The expanded the borders of the , which was mostly populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing , a unique, -type of political system with a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities. Foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the since its founding in 1945 as well as of the 1945 , the 1961 , 1969 and the 1973. Despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known and has been highly influential in the Arab world, powered by its large. Before the 1975—1990 , the country experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce, and banking. At the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. In spite of these troubles, Lebanon has the highest and in the Arab world, with the exception of the. Occurrences of the name have been found in different texts from the library of , and three of the twelve tablets of the. The name is recorded in as Rmnn, where R stood for L. The name occurs nearly 70 times in the , as לְבָנוֹן. Main article: The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the of 1920. Its territory was the core of the Bronze Age city-states. As part of the , it was part of numerous succeeding empires throughout ancient history, including the , , , , , and empires. After the 7th-century , it was part of the , , and empires. The of the , founded by in 1102, encompassed most of present-day Lebanon, falling to the in 1289 and finally to the in 1517. With the , fell under in 1920, and gained independence under president in 1943. Lebanon's history since independence has been marked by alternating periods of political stability and prosperity based on 's position as a regional center for finance and trade, interspersed with political turmoil and armed conflict , 1975—1990, 2005 , , , , , and since 2011. Ancient Lebanon Map of Phoenicia and trade routes Evidence dating back to an early settlement in Lebanon was found in , considered one of the in the world. The evidence dates back to earlier than 5000 BC. Archaeologists discovered remnants of prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons, and burial jars left by the and fishing communities who lived on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea over 7,000 years ago. Lebanon was a part of northern , and consequently became the homeland of Canaanite descendants — the , a seafaring people who spread across the Mediterranean before the rise of. Their most famous colonies were in what is present-day and in present-day. The are also known as the inventors of the , among many other things. The area of present-day Lebanon and the wider were subjugated by Cyrus in 539 BCE. The Persians forced some of its population to migrate to , which remained a powerful nation until the. After two centuries of Persian rule, ruler attacked and burned , the most prominent Phoenician city. He conquered what is now Lebanon and other nearby regions of the Eastern Mediterranean in 332 BCE. Maronites, Druze, and the Crusades The to the Egyptian and destruction of the Crusader state, the County of Tripoli, 1289 The region that is now Lebanon, as with the rest of Syria and much of , became a major center of Christianity in the during the early spread of the religion. During the late 4th and early 5th century, a hermit named established a monastic tradition focused on the importance of and , near the Mediterranean mountain range known as. The monks who followed Maron spread his teachings among Lebanese in the region. These Christians came to be known as and moved into the mountains to avoid religious persecution by Roman authorities. During the frequent that lasted for many centuries, the occupied what is now Lebanon from 619 till 629. During the 7th century the Muslim Arabs establishing a new regime to replace the. Though Islam and the Arabic language were officially dominant under this new regime, the general populace nonetheless only gradually converted from Christianity and the Syriac language. The Maronite community in particular managed to maintain a large degree of autonomy despite the succession of rulers over Lebanon and Syria. During the 11th century the faith emerged from a branch of. The new faith gained followers in the southern portion of Mount Lebanon. The northern portion of Mount Lebanon was ruled by Druze feudal families to the early 14th century which was then brought to an end by the Mamluk invasion. The Maronite population increased gradually in Northern Mount Lebanon and the Druze have remained in Southern Mount Lebanon until the modern era. In the south of Lebanon, , and the was ruled by Shia feudal families under the Mamluks and the Ottoman Empire. Major cities on the coast, , , and others, were directly administered by the Muslim Caliphs and the people became more fully absorbed by the Arab culture. Following the fall of Roman to the Muslim Turks, the Byzantines put out a call to the Pope in Rome for assistance in the 11th century. The result was a series of wars known as the launched by the in Western Europe to reclaim the forme
