Beit Mery

The town is the site of the annual Al Bustan festival,[2] held in the theatre of the Al Bustan Hotel.[3] The festival was created in 1994 by Myrna Al Bustani, owner of the hotel.

Among the artists who performed at the festival, Julian Lloyd Webber (cellist), Gautier Capuçon (cellist), Gianluca Marciano (conductor), Virginia Tola (soprano), Inva Mula (soprano), Helikon Opera, Stile Antico, Evelyn Glennie (percussions), Boris Berezovsky (pianist), Khatia Buniatishvili (pianist), Alondra de la Parra (conductor), Oliver Poole (pianist), Anna Tifu (violin).

The residents of Beit Mery are mainly Christian (Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian Orthodox) and Druze.

Beit Mery occupies a hill, 700–750 meters above sea level, which gives the town views of the Beirut peninsula and part of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. It has an area of 5.48 km2. Since 2000 Beit Mery started to be a suburban town and is 16 km away from Beirut.

The Roman rulers of Lebanon made Beit Mery their summer resort due to its high location and summer weather.[4]

There are two prehistoric archaeological sites in Beit Mery where flint industries have been found by Jesuit archaeologists:[5]

1) Beit Mery I is on the right bank of the Beirut River, south southwest of the town at an altitude of approximately 125 metres (410 ft) above sea level. It was found by Jesuit Father Dillenseger who determined it to be an Acheulean site. The material was donated to the Saint Joseph University by the French Faculty of Medicine.[5]

2) Beit Mery II is east of the road from Beit Mery to Deir el Qala'a on a sloping plateau facing the junction of the Nahr Meten and Nahr Jamani. It was found by M. Gautier who recovered Heavy Neolithic flint tools from the surface. V. Hankey also recovered some retouched blades from this area.[5]

But what makes very important Beit Mery -even for tourism- are the scattered ruins of the Roman era, that lasted five centuries plus the two of the byzantine era.[6]

In Beit Mery there it is what’s left of a Roman temple that once matched the grandeur of Baalbek’s temples and Niha’s fortress. A church dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was built over the temple’s remains in the 18th century. You can still see the original stonework in the remaining columns that adorn the square at the church’s entrance. Though it suffered a great deal of damage during the Civil War, the site has since been dutifully restored and maintained for cultural and touristic events. The monastery has proved an ideal locale for concerts, competitions, art exhibitions, conferences, poetry nights, and social gatherings. In town, below the monastery, you will find smaller temples dedicated to various Roman deities, in addition to public Roman baths with their terra cotta pipes. There are also some remains of a Byzantine city that dates back to the 5th and 6th centuries.Lebanon Ministry of Tourism [7]

The town has ancient Roman and Byzantine ruins as well as the historic Maronite Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, (Deir el Kalaa) which was built in 1750.[8] The town, which is only 16 km from Beirut, continues to be a summer resort in Lebanon with a landmark hotel, the Al Bustan. Pine forests surround the town. Restaurants with views of the valleys and the sea make Beit Mery a favorite summer spot.

Beit Meri has a Hot-summer mediterranean climate (Csa) with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers.

• Beit Mery, Localiban
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080705115753/http://www.beitmery.com/