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The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to the Coele-Syria of classical antiquity.
The Beqaa is located about 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 long and wide on average. It has a Mediterranean climate of wet, often snowy winters and dry, warm summers.
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 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 and centered on Zahlé.
The valley also produces hashish and cultivates opium poppy, which are exported as part of the illegal drug trade.
Labweh is a village at an elevation of 950 metres (3,120 ft) on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon, settled since the Neolithic.
In the 11th and 10th centuries BC, the Arameans founded the kingdom of Zobah (also Sobah), mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars suggest it was located in the Beqa'a valley. The precise whereabouts of Zobah, a prominent city at the time, remains a subject of scholarly debate. In the 8th and 7th century BC, Sobah, now under Imperial Assyrian rule, served as the residence for an Assyrian governor, Bel-liqbi.
According to a surface survey study by German archaeologist L. Marfoe, the northern Beqaa, and thus the Beqaa valley as a whole, was only sparsely inhabited during the Achaemenid period.Julien Aliquot. Les Ituréens et la présence arabe au Liban du IIe siècle a.C. au IVe siècle p.C.. Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, 2003, 56, pp.161-191. ⟨halshs-00304315⟩
The valley was of considerable importance to the Roman Empire as one of the important agricultural regions in the eastern provinces, and it was known for its many temples. The region also gained the attention of Palmyra Queen Zenobia, who built the Canalizations of Zenobia, linking the valley with Palmyra.
The majority of the inhabitants of the northern districts of Beqaa, Baalbek and Hermel, are Lebanese Shiites, with the exception of the town of Deir el Ahmar, whose inhabitants are Christians. The Baalbek and Hermel districts have a Christian and Sunni minority, mainly situated further north along the border with Syria.
The western and southern districts of the valley also have a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and Druze. The town of Joub Jannine with a population of about 12,000, is situated midway in the valley, and its population is Sunni. Joub Janine is the governmental center of the region known as Western Beqaa, with municipal services like the serail, which is the main government building in the area, emergency medical services (Red Cross), a fire department, and a courthouse.
]]Other towns in the Western Beqaa district are Machghara, Sabghine, Kamid el-Loz, Qabb Ilyas, Sohmor, Yohmor. The towns are all a mix of different Lebanese religious confessions. Rashaya, east of the Western Beqaa district, is home to Lebanon's share of Mount Hermon and borders Syria also. The district's capital, also Rachaiya al Wadi, not to be confused with Rachaiya al Foukhar in South Lebanon, is famous for its old renovated souk and what is known as the castle of independence in which Lebanon's pre-independence leaders were held by French troops before being released in 1943. The southern section of the district is inhabited with Druze and Christian Lebanese, while the other northern section is mainly inhabited by Sunni Lebanese.
Due to wars and the unstable economic and political conditions Lebanon faced in the past, with difficulties some farmers still face today, many previous inhabitants of the valley left for coastal cities in Lebanon or emigrated from the country altogether, with the majority residing in North America, South America or Australia.
During the Lebanese Civil War, cannabis cultivation was a major source of income in the Beqaa Valley, where most of the country's hashish and opium was produced. The war led various groups to turn to drug trafficking for income. Syria, which controlled most of the Valley, profited significantly from the trade. Palestinians militant groups, including the PLO, also participated in the hashish trade, making millions of dollars.
The trade collapsed during the worldwide crackdown on narcotics led by the United States in the early 1990s.Middle East International No 567, 30 January 1998; Reinoud Leenders p.19 Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the occupying Syrian Army plowed up the Beqaa's cannabis fields and sprayed them with poison. Prior to 1991 it was estimated that income generated from illicit crops grown in the Beqaa was around $500 million. According to the UNDP the annual per capita income at that time in the Baalbek and Hermel district did not exceed $500. The same agency estimated the figure for the rest of Lebanon was $2,074.
Since the mid-1990s, the culture and production of drugs in the Beqaa Valley has been in steady decline. By 2002, an estimated 2,500 hectares of cannabis were limited to the extreme north of the Valley, where government presence remains minimal. Every year since 2001 the Lebanese Army plows cannabis fields in an effort to destroy the crops before harvest.United Press International, Feb 26 2002 'Lebanon army destroys drugs' It is estimated that that action eliminates no more than 30% of overall crops. Although important during the civil war, opium cultivation has become marginal, dropping from an estimated 30 metric tonnes per year in 1983 to negligible amounts in 2004.
Due to increasing political unrest that weakened the central Lebanese government during the 2006 Lebanon War and 2007 Opposition boycott of the government, and due to the lack of viable alternatives, United Nations promises of irrigation projects and alternative crop subsidies that never materialized, drug cultivation and production have significantly increased. "Lebanese find troubles fertile ground for cannabis" Reuters They remain a fraction of the civil war era production and are limited north of the town of Baalbek, where the rule of tribal law protecting armed families is still strong.
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