The Beqaa valley is the old “Coele Syria” of the Latin, the granary of ancient Rome. This great fertile plateau, 176 km long and 15 km wide, was in times past a route for caravans from the east and north.

Traces have been found of the many peoples who have passed here. Some merely through-Egyptians, Hittites, Persians, crusading Franks, others lingered - the Greeks, Roman and Byzantines – while some like the Arabs settled down.