Beqaa Valley

34.00888936.145306Koordinaten: 34 ° 0 ' 32 "N, 36 ° 8' 43 " O

The Bekaa Valley (Arabic البقاع al - ʿ Biqa ) is a plateau in Lebanon, which is located between the mountains of the Lebanon Mountains and the Anti-Lebanon. The plane is also referred to as the fruit and vegetable growing area in the country. It extends in a north-south direction to the east of the country. The most important and largest cities are Zahle and Baalbek. Most settlements are located at the edges of the Bekaa.

Location

The plane is the northern continuation of the Jordan Valley, and therefore part of the Great African grave breach. It is about 120 km long and 8-12 km wide and is nestled between the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains at an altitude of about 900 m. Two rivers originate in the northern Bekaa valley: the Orontes ( Nahr al- Asi ) crosses the north the Syrian border and follows the grave breach, which runs on through the Syrian Ghab level. The Litani flows through the plain to the south. The irrigated agriculture takes place to a greater extent by surface water and, increasingly, by pumping irrigation from groundwater.

Climate

The Bekaa Valley has an almost continental climate. During the year it is dry, hot in summer and colder in winter than in the areas west of the mountains. Some of the areas has already steppe character, because they are so dry. Only in the Bekaa Valley, in the north and in the mountains of Lebanon it snows, not in the rest of the country. In the exceptional winter of 1991/2, the snow was partly 8 meters high. The climate on the edges is milder and wetter, there also the term fruit and vegetable chamber of the country was coined. In this green belt most of the settlements of the plane.

History

The Bekaa Valley by the Roman temple ruins in Baalbek and the ruins of Anjar Omayyadenstadt is known. Worth seeing is also a pyramid-shaped grave monument ten kilometers from the city of Hermel. The 27 -meter-high pyramid dates from the first or second century BC. More Roman temple in Niha, Qsarnaba and Majdel Aanjar can additionally include the importance that has had the Bekaa for the Romans - not least was the region as an important granary and made a great contribution to the supply of the ancient city of Rome. On June 10, 1982, a battle took place between Israel and Syria in the Bekaa Valley in the town of Sultan Jakub.

Agriculture

The Bekaa Valley is the most important agricultural production area of Lebanon. Crops are inter alia Wine, olives, cucumbers, peas, almonds, tobacco and onions. The degree of mechanization of cultivation is very low and is operated with cheap labor from Syria, which can get a 4 times higher wage than at home here. Often entire families are living in extremely poor camps with very poor hygienic conditions. Most will work for piece rates, where you Lebanese in a ten -hour day up to 8000 pounds, the equivalent of 4 euros deserves. 1500-2000 Lebanese Pound reserves the Shawish, the recruitment agency. Work is done without holidays, pull under exposure to toxic chemicals and unnatural postures, muscular -skeletal disorders by itself. To pay the cost of a surgery for a herniated disc, the members need several months to work around the 1.5 million Lebanese pounds to be able to apply (770 euros ).

The cannabis strain Lebanese Red comes from the Bekaa Valley. After a decline in production in the 1990s hemp since the turn of the millennium increasingly grown.

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