Jounieh

Jounieh (Arabic جونيه, or Junia, جونية) is a Mediterranean coastal city about 16 kilometers north of Beirut, Lebanon. It is known for its seaside resorts, pubs, restaurants and nightclubs, as well as its old stone souk, ferry, and cablecar (le télphérique), which takes passengers up the mountain to the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. Above Jounieh, and on the way to Harissa, a small hill named Bkerke (Arabic بكركي, or Bkerki), overlooking the Jounieh bay, is the seat of the Patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church. Its inhabitants are predominantly Christian Maronite and it's thus known to be the largest Christian Maronite city in the world.

From 1980 to 1990, Jounieh witnessed a massive migration as a large number of the Beirut traders moved to its markets. Buildings took over its green spaces, and the tourist complexes took over its shores. So its features changed randomly though it benefited from the use of the tourist port for commerce.

In 1990, when fighting stopped, Jounieh was no longer a small city where the humming of water is heard, and houses with red-tiled roofs are surrounded by dreamy orchards but it became a coastal city crowded with people in forests of cement without a beach for the waves to spread.

Jounieh in the beginning of the twenty first century looks reasonably and confidently ahead, leaving behind it memories of a century in which it expanded before its time.

Now, around 18 thousand voters live in Jounieh. Those who live in its towns and suburbs exceed 200,000. By the middle of the century, Jounieh will become a suburb of Beirut in a costal line that forms one city that expands the length of the coastal road at a time when the inhabitants of Lebanon will reach six million around the year 2025.