Damour () is a coastal town in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon, located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Beirut at the mouth of the Damour River on the Mediterranean coast. Known for silk production since 1843, Damour developed as an important agricultural center during the 20th century especially with its banana plantations. Damour was heavily affected by the Lebanese Civil War, particularly during the 1976 Damour massacre. In recent years, agriculture, agri-food production, and coastal tourism have remained central to the local economy, supported in part by the Agrifood Innovation and Development (AID) Hub established in the town.
History
Middle Ages Damour and the surrounding district fell within the territory of the Druze Buhturids of the Gharb, a branch of the Tanukhid dynasty. In 1256 the Crusader lord of Sidon granted farmland in Damour to Buhturid Emmir Jamal al-din Hajji II. In 1302, after the Mamluks took Arwad Island, on 8 June the same year, the Cypriots landed on the Damour River.Demurger, "Jacques de Molay", p.158 A battle took place between the Cypriots and the Muslim forces led by Emir Fakhr al-Din Abdel-Hamid bin Jamaluddin Altnokhi and his brother, Emir Shams al-Din Abdullah. The battle was won by Crusaders. Fakhr al-Din Emir was killed, while his brother Shams al-Din fell hostage. He was released after five days for a ransom of three thousand dinars tyrians.
Emirate of Mount Lebanon
From 1523 to 1842 Damour was part of the Emirate of Mount Lebanon, an autonomous region inside the Ottoman Empire. It was run according to the iqta system of tax farming and the millet system which organized Ottoman subjects along religious distinctions.
Late ottoman silk boom
In 1843, Antoine-Fortune Portalis established (along with Prosper, Nicolas, Joseph) the first mechanized silk factory in Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon, which was one of the first steps in incorporating the mountain's economy into the world capitalist system, and toward the rise of the importance of silk in the lives and livelihoods of the Lebanese peasantry.
The number of silk filatures in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate expanded from 33 in 1862 to 101 in 1885 and 149 in 1893; in 1905, Damour had five silk factories in operation. Silk production was concentrated alongside mulberry cultivation in the coastal plain, and the wealth it generated funded the construction of substantial mansions associated with the families of industrialists.
In the 19th century, Damour was a flourishing center of the Chouf region. Its plain was then planted with mulberry and had twelve large manufacturing companies. Ten thousand workers and technicians worked in the natural silk industry. The city has a real fascination for the Lebanese worker and attracts the largest majority of the natives in the Sahel region.
Late Ottoman sectarian conflict
During the last centuries, Damour was located on the central axis of fighting and successive wars.
Damour lay within the southern, predominantly Druze-administered kaymakamate of Mount Lebanon during the period of confessional unrest that culminated in the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war. Across the wider conflict, at least two hundred villages were destroyed and thousands were killed in fighting between Druze and Maronite communities, with Druze forces emerging militarily victorious after successive assaults on Deir al-Qamar, Zahlé, Hasbaya and Rashaya.Makdisi, Ussama (2000). The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon. Berkeley: University of California Press. European intervention, including French and British forces, followed the violence and led to the establishment of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate in 1861 under the Règlement Organique.Heraclides, Alexis; Dialla, Ada (2015). "Intervention in Lebanon and Syria, 1860–61". In Humanitarian Intervention in the Long Nineteenth Century. Manchester University Press: 137.
During the civil war that started in 1858, Maronites stood up to the power of the Druze. In April 1860, this resulted in violence carried out by Druze forces, leading to the massacre of several thousand Christians, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 15,000. In addition, churches and monasteries were plundered.
During World War I, Damour was affected by the 1915 Ottoman Syria locust infestation and the subsequent famine in Mount Lebanon. A Catholic priest from Damour recorded mass deaths in the town and surrounding villages began following the locust attack in April 1915.
French Mandate (1920-1943)
In 1941, Damour was the French administrative capital. The Battle of Damour occurred between the 5th-9 July 1941 during World War II in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. Australian troops, progressing towards the North along the coast, took Damour, held by the French Foreign Legion, faithful to the Vichy Government. A cease-fire was concluded at the end of the battle. There were no more obstacles in the direction of Beirut.
In 1942, South African army engineers built a railway line from Haifa to Beirut along the coast and Australian engineers continued the line to Tripoli.
The railway is no longer in use.
Independent Lebanon
When the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975, the Chouf coastal areas witnessed demographic changes and a sudden displacement of their residents (particularly the Christians), which occurred in two waves: the first in 1975 and 1976 after the Damour Massacre by militants of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and as-Sa'iaqa, and the second in 1984-1985, during the so-called Mountain War.
1976 PLO massacre On January 9, 1976, the Lebanese National Movement and the PLO laid siege to Damour. On January 20, 1976, thousands of militants from the PLO committed a massacre of the inhabitants in revenge for a massacre of Palestinians in the Karantina district of Beirut. The massacre resulted in the killing of 582 Christians, the destruction of homes, and bodies left on the street for days.
1982 Israeli Attack
During 1982 Lebanon War, the Israeli Air Force bombed Beirut and other several cities in the south, including Damour. On June 10, 1982, Colonel Eli Geva's 211th Brigade trespassed Damour moving towards Khalde, south of Beirut.
Mountain War Edgar O'Ballance's book “Civil War in Lebanon” details the impact of the Mountain War on Damour.
2006 Israeli attack During the 2006 Lebanon War, the Israeli Air Force destroyed several bridges on Highway Beirut-Tyre and on the Damour River.
Archaeology The Historical Bridge
Adjacent to an iron bridge at the mouth of the Damour river, possibly built in the 19th century, lie stone foundations of an earlier structure. Its visible remains include a masonry abutment on the left bank, foundation traces on the right, and ruins of what was possibly a pier within a small island in the middle of the river.
Historical evidence points to a medieval bridge constructed in 1291 during the reign Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Khalīl after the conquest of Sidon and Beirut, and rebuilt in 1340 and 1344. It may have been destroyed due to heavy rain and flooding in 1503–1504.
Further archaeological evidence dates back to the era of Emir Bachir Chehab II, who ordered its construction in 1815. It was replaced by a large French mandate period bridge which stands to this day.
Heritage The structures of Damour's 18th and 19th-century silk industry, which brought the town considerable prosperity through trade with European markets, are a distinct part of its remaining heritage. Silk factories remain visible today, accompanied by the partially collapsed remains of a glass factory.The wealth generated by silk production funded the construction of fine examples of traditional Lebanese mansions and large houses during the 19th and early 20th centuries, several of which survive in damaged condition. Contemporary with the early-19th-century industrial works of Emir Bashir Shihab II, an extensive aqueduct was constructed in the same period to supply water both to the agricultural plain and to the silk and glass factories. Sections of the aqueduct survive in fair condition and remain a recognisable landmark, although other sections have been rebuilt in cement block. Together, the surviving aqueduct, silk factories and glass-factory remains constitute the tangible evidence of what was once a thriving industrial economy linked to the broader silk economy of Mount Lebanon and the coast. Geography The town lies within the Damour River basin, one of Lebanon's seventeen perennial river systems, and much of its coastal plain is occupied by banana plantations. Damour has a Mediterranean climate, though studies project increasing water stress and declining precipitation in the basin due to climate change. The town is named after the Damour river, which is named after the Phoenician god Damoros, otherwise known as Tamyrus.
The river originates at an elevation of 1,948 metres at the Nabaa al-Safa and Nabaa al-Barouk springs and runs 38 kilometres to the Mediterranean Sea, draining a watershed of approximately 290 km2.Saad, Z.; Kazpard, V.A.; Geyh, M.A.; Slim, K. (2004). "Chemical and Isotopic Composition of Water from Springs and Wells in the Damour River Basin and the Coastal Plain in Lebanon". Journal of Environmental Hydrology. 12 (Paper 18): 1–13, at p. 2. The watershed is bordered by the Nahr Beirut basin to the north, the Nahr Awali basin to the south, and the Nahr Litani basin to the east. Two diversion dams on the river feed irrigation networks, the lower one diverting approximately 1,100 m3/h and the upper one approximately 650 m3/h.
The Damour basin's geology is dominated by Jurassic limestone and dolomite surrounded by Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary deposits. Karstic formations represent approximately 27 percent of the watershed (3 percent Jurassic and 24 percent Middle Cretaceous). Thick layers of karstic limestone form the major aquifer system, with faults interconnecting the mountain aquifers with those of the coastal plain. The Damour coastal aquifer is a significant source for irrigation and municipal water supply in the surrounding area; hydrochemical and isotopic studies have shown that pumped groundwater is largely recharged locally within the coastal plain, with up to 30 percent originating from recharge in the high mountains of the upper basin.
70% of the coastal plains West of Damour are used for banana plantations. Further scrublands complement the plantations in the coastal parts of Damour, whereas the Eastern hills are dominated by woodlands.
The Beirut-Tyre Highway separates the plantations. Now dismantled, the track is a stopover. Damour is the second largest urban settlement located across the western part of the Damour river.
Climate Damour has a mild mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with moderately warm and dry summers and moderately cold, windy, and wet winters.Harik, G.; Alameddine, I.; Abou Najm, M.; El-Fadel, M. (2023). "Modified SWAT to Forecast Water Availability in Mediterranean Mountainous Watersheds with Snowmelt Dominated Runoff". Water Resources Management. 37 (5): 1985–2000, at p. 1987. . Roughly 80 to 90 percent of total annual precipitation falls between November and March, with scattered rainfall events beginning in October and ending in May.Massoud, M.A. (2011). "Assessment of water quality along a recreational section of the Damour River in Lebanon using the water quality index". Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 184 (7): 4151–4160, at p. 4152. . Snowmelt occurring between March and May constitutes a significant source of fresh water for Damour.