Machghara

Machghara
مشغرة
Mashghara
Town
Machghara

Location in Lebanon

Coordinates: 33°31′41″N 35°39′6″E / 33.52806°N 35.65167°E / 33.52806; 35.65167Coordinates: 33°31′41″N 35°39′6″E / 33.52806°N 35.65167°E / 33.52806; 35.65167
Country  Lebanon
Governorate Beqaa Governorate
District Western Beqaa District
Population (1997 census estimates)
 • Total 6,800

Machghara (مشغرة) is a small town in the Beka'a Valley of Lebanon,[1] situated in the Western Beqaa District and south of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just to the northwest of Sohmor and southwest of Lake Qaraoun, south of Aitanit and north of Ain Et Tine. The Iskander Spring lies to the northeast of the village.

Machghara currently consists of many religious groups, including sunnis, Melkite, Orthodox, and Shiite. The city lies at an average of 1050 m above sea level, over 200 m above the course of the Litani River. It is built on the slope of the massif of Mount Lebanon.

History

During the nineteenth century under the Ottoman Empire, Machghara was attached, depending on the period, at the wilaya of Damascus, in the wilaya of Saida, or the autonomous province of Mount Lebanon (Mutasarrifiya). It was part of Greater Lebanon in 1920. Due to its abundance of water sources, the city enjoyed a development of tanneries in the early twentieth century. This industry provided equipment to the Turkish army before the entry of French troops. Machghara was a place of command and trade for the agricultural activity of a set of localities in the surroundings.

After its attachment to Greater Lebanon (connecting the Bekaa, North and South in Mount Lebanon) in 1920 under the French mandate, Machghara became garrison town of the French army which reinforced its centrality in the region.

In the years between Lebanese Independence 1943 to the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 were years of prosperity for Lebanon and Machghara, which benefited from the construction site of the Litani River Dam in the 1960s that created the nearby Lake Qaraoun.

In 1977, the Syrian army invaded Lebanon and occupied Machghara. Between 1977 and 1982, new political parties took place in the locality, Amal and, later, Hezbollah. Machghara was hard hit by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the city remained under Israeli occupation until 1985. Many young people enlisted in the Lebanese National Resistance Front led by secular parties that operated throughout the occupied zone.

Between 1986 and 2006, Machghara underwent several Israeli bombings.

Notable Natives

Families

References

  1. ↑ Le Commerce du Levant. Société de la presse économique. 1967. p. 40. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
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