Location: Middle East, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and Syria

Map references: Africa, Middle East, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area:
total area: 10,400 sq km
land area: 10,230 sq km
comparative area: about 0.8 times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries: total 454 km, Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km

Coastline: 225 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: separated from Israel by the 1949 Armistice Line; Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982; Syrian troops in northern, central, and eastern Lebanon since October 1976

Climate: Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers; Lebanon mountains experience heavy winter snows

Terrain: narrow coastal plain; Al Biqa' (Bekaa Valley) separates Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains

Natural resources: limestone, iron ore, salt, water-surplus state in a water-deficit region

Land use:
arable land: 21%
permanent crops: 9%
meadows and pastures: 1%
forest and woodland: 8%
other: 61%

Irrigated land: 860 sq km (1989 est.)

Environment:
current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air and water pollution
natural hazards: NA
international agreements: party to - Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution; signed, but not ratified - Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation

Note: Nahr al Litani only major river in Near East not crossing an international boundary; rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, and ethnicity

NOTE: The information regarding Lebanon on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Lebanon Geography 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Lebanon Geography 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.