Total area: 10,400 km2
land area: 10,230 km2

Comparative area: about 0.8 times the size of Connecticut

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

Coastline: 225 km

Maritime claims: Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: separated from Israel by the 1949 Armistice Line; Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982; Syrian troops in northern Lebanon since October 1976

Climate: Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers

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%; includes irrigated 7%

Environment: rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, ethnicity; deforestation; soil erosion; air and water pollution; desertification

Note: Nahr al Litani only major river in Near East not crossing an international boundary

NOTE: The information regarding Lebanon on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Lebanon Geography 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Lebanon Geography 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.