"Bekaa" redirects here. For the Lebanese association football club, see Bekaa SC.
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The Beqaa Valley (Arabic: وادي البقاع, Wādī l-Biqā‘, Lebanese [bʔaːʕ]), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important farming region.[1] Industry also flourishes in Beqaa, especially that related to agriculture.
The Beqaa is located about 30 km (19 mi) east of Beirut. The valley is situated between Mount Lebanon to the west and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east. It is the northern continuation of the Jordan Rift Valley, and thus part of the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Syria to the Red Sea. Beqaa Valley is 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) wide on average. It has a Mediterranean climate of wet, often snowy winters and dry, warm summers.
The region receives limited rainfall, particularly in the north, because Mount Lebanon creates a rain shadow that blocks precipitation coming from the sea. The northern section has an average annual rainfall of 230 millimetres (9.1 in), compared to 610 millimetres (24 in) in the central valley. Nevertheless, two rivers originate in the valley: the Orontes (Asi), which flows north into Syria and Turkey, and the Litani, which flows south and then west to the Mediterranean Sea.
From the 1st century BC, when the region was part of the Roman Empire, the Beqaa Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant. Today the valley makes up 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land. The northern end of the valley, with its scarce rainfall and less fertile soils, is used primarily as grazing land by pastoral nomads. Farther south, more fertile soils support crops of wheat, maize, cotton, and vegetables, with vineyards and orchards centered on Zahlé. The valley also produces hashish and cultivates opium poppies, which are exported as part of the illegal drug trade. Since 1957 the Litani hydroelectricity project, a series of canals and a dam located at Lake Qaraoun at the southern end of the valley, has improved irrigation to farms in Beqaa Valley.
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The BeqaaValley (Arabic: وادي البقاع, Wādī l-Biqā‘, Lebanese [bʔaːʕ]), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity...
Beqaa (Arabic: بقاع, Biqā‘) can refer to two places in Lebanon: Beqaa Governorate, one of six major subdivisions of Lebanon BeqaaValley, a valley in eastern...
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The Temples of the BeqaaValley are a number of shrines and Roman temples that are dispersed around the BeqaaValley in Lebanon. The most important and...
hundred kilograms of heroin per month to North America. The BeqaaValley, a fertile valley in east Lebanon and one of the country's most important farming...
influenced by natural systems that extend outside the country. Thus, the BeqaaValley is part of the Great Rift system, which stretches from southern Turkey...
vegetables in the BeqaaValley. More exotic crops include avocados, grown near Byblos, and hashish (a major crop in the BeqaaValley). Although the country...
the early 1980s and culminated in Syria deploying SAM batteries in the BeqaaValley. On June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, and on the third day of the...
forms the BeqaaValley in Lebanon, separating the Mount Lebanon range from the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Further south it is known as the Hula Valley separating...
is approximately 32 km². Qabb Ilyas is the third largest city in the BeqaaValley, after Zahleh and Baalbek in terms of area size and geography. The majority...
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Southern Lebanon and the Beqaavalley. After the Ottoman conquest circa 1516, leading Shiite families in Jabal Amil, BeqaaValley and Mount Lebanon, which...
spelled Mashghara, is a town in the BeqaaValley of Lebanon, situated in the Western Beqaa District and south of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just to the...
in the springs near Labweh in Lebanon on the east side of the BeqaaValley (in the Beqaa Governorate) between Mount Lebanon on the west and the Anti-Lebanon...
important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile BeqaaValley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre...
Islamic Republic of Iran established a base in the Syrian-controlled BeqaaValley in Lebanon. From that base, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps...
plain, the western mountain range (Mount Lebanon), an interior valley (the BeqaaValley), and the eastern mountain range (the Anti-Lebanon). The Mount...
Muslims were primarily based throughout all of southern Lebanon and the BeqaaValley in the east; and Druze and Christians populated the country's mountainous...
Chtaura (Arabic: شتورا) is a town in Lebanon in the fertile Beqaavalley located between the Mount Lebanon and Syria. It is located halfway on the Beirut...
its use by radical groups in Syria, including, such as ISIS. As per BeqaaValley farmers, a farm located approximately 30 km from the capital Beirut and...
the armies of Jerusalem and Tripoli, respectively, in a raid of the BeqaaValley (modern-day Lebanon), where they defeated the garrison of Damascus, forcing...
Lake Qaraoun in the BeqaaValley formed by the El Wauroun Dam built in 1959. It is an ecologically fragile zone in the Western Beqaa District. The village...
Cinsaut vines from Algeria at Château Ksara near Zahlé in the central BeqaaValley. In 1868 a French engineer, Eugène François Brun, set up Domaine des...
salads in the Middle East. The wheat variety salamouni cultivated in the BeqaaValley region in Lebanon, was considered (in the mid-19th century) as particularly...
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