Protestant Christianity: Biographies

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names Further reading

Biqa Valley

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa | 2004 | | Copyright

BIQA VALLEY

fertile region of eastern lebanon.

Running parallel to the Mediterranean coast between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges, the Biqa valley throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries enjoyed close ties to Damascus, whose populace constituted a ready market for its agricultural produce. Nevertheless, in August 1920, French mandatory authorities incorporated the Biqa into the newly created state of Lebanon. Thereafter, it served as the breadbasket for the rapidly expanding port city of Beirut.

After the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, the towns of the Biqa provided strongholds for a number of militant Shiʿite organizations. These included not only Hizbullah and Islamic AMAL, headquartered around Baʿalbak, but also a detachment of Revolutionary Guards seconded from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Neither Syrian troops, which controlled the Beirut-Damascus highway beginning in the summer of 1976, nor Israeli forces, which raided the area by air and land on numerous occasions, succeeded in dislodging the militants, who supported their activities by producing opium and other drugs for export. When the fighting stopped in 1989, Syrian military units maintained their positions in the area, and the local economy retained its wartime links to southern Syria.

Bekaa Valley

Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names | 2005 | | Copyright

Bekaa Valley (al‐Biqā᾽), Lebanon The Arabic name means ‘The Places’ from al and the plural of buq᾽ah ‘place’ or ‘spot’.

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JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Bekaa Valley." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Bekaa Valley." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-BekaaValley.html

JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Bekaa Valley." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-BekaaValley.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Syria agrees to withdrawal date from Bekaa Valley.(News) Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 3/8/2005
	Peace feels precarious in the Bekaa Valley.(TRAVEL) Newspaper article from: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN); 8/8/1999
	18 years on, Brian Keenan returns to city that left him a 'living corpse';... Newspaper article from: The Mail on Sunday (London, England); 3/16/2008