Port of Beirut
In 1887, following decades of rapid economic expansion driven by trade liberalization and silk exports, the Municipality of Beirut obtained authorization from the Ottoman Empire to enlarge and modernize the Port of Beirut. All castle structures and the promontories on which they were built were entirely flattened between 1889 and 1895 to construct a road and railway that served the new port facilities, now . The area that had laid at the foot of the castle promontory became a market for bulk trade in grains, sugar, rice, coffee and tea, known as "Souk Mal-al-Qabban".