page_title: Tourism in Lebanon
section_title: Museums
hierarchical_section_title: Tourism in Lebanon / Museums
caption_attribution_description: Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Bertil Videt العربية: قصر سرسق ليلاً في بيروت - لبنان.
context_page_description: The tourism industry in Lebanon has been historically important to the local economy and remains to this day to be a major source of revenue for Lebanon. Before the Lebanese Civil War, Beirut was widely regarded as "The Paris of the Middle East" or also "The Pearl of the Middle East" often cited as a financial and business hub where visitors could experience the Levantine Mediterranean culture, cuisine, history, archaeology, and architecture of Lebanon.
  From Stone Age settlements to Phoenician city-states, from Roman temples to rock-cut hermitages, from Crusader Castles to Mamluk mosques and Ottoman hammams, the country's historical and archaeological sites are displayed all across the country reflecting ancient and modern world history. Lebanon has a long-standing history of cultural tourism. Interest in the Lebanese Levantine culture was stirred following the visits of many European orientalists, scholars and poets particularly Alphonse de Lamartine, Ernest Renan and Victor Guérin.
  Lebanon's diverse atmosphere and ancient history make it an important destination which is slowly rebuilding itself after continued turmoil.
context_section_description: Beirut National Museum is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection was begun after World War I, and the museum was officially opened in 1942. The museum has collections totaling about 100,000 objects, most of which are antiquities and medieval finds from excavations undertaken by the Directorate General of Antiquities. About 1300 artifacts are exhibited, ranging in date from prehistoric times to the medieval Mamluk period. The museum was designed in a French-inspired Egyptian Revival architecture and built with Lebanese Ochre limestone. It comprises a basement, a ground floor, a mezzanine floor and a terrace; the central block is covered by a glass roof, above the mezzanine, giving natural overhead light. The whole site is approximately 5,500 square meters (59,000 sq ft), and the exhibition floor space totals 6,000 square meters (65,000 sq ft). The immediately adjoining museum annexes and administrative offices occupy about 1,000 square meters (11,000 sq ft). The museum displays follow a chronological circuit beginning in Prehistory and ending in the Ottoman era. The circuit begins on the ground floor where 83 large objects are displayed, these include sarcophagi, mosaics statues and reliefs. The upper floor displays 1243 small and medium-sized artifacts arranged by chronological order and by theme in modern showcases with soft lighting and magnifying glasses that emphasize the aesthetic aspect of the artifacts.
  Gibran Museum, formerly the Monastery of Mar Sarkis, is a biographical museum in Bsharri, Lebanon, 120 kilometers from Beirut. It is dedicated to the Lebanese artist, writer and philosopher Khalil Gibran. Founded in 1935, the Gibran Museum possesses 440 original paintings and drawings of Gibran and his tomb. It also includes his furniture and belongings from his studio when he lived in New York City and his private manuscripts. The building which houses the museum and his tomb was bought by his sister in 1931 under Gibran's request, having spiritual significance as a monastery dating back to the 7th century when it was the Mar Sarkis (Saint Serge) hermitage. In 1975, the Gibran National Committee restored and expanded the monastery to house more exhibits and again expanded it in 1995.
  Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut is the third oldest museum in the Near East, after Cairo and Istanbul. The AUB Museum exhibits Levantine artifacts from the Early Stone Age to the Islamic period. The museum was formed in 1868 after Luigi Palma di Cesnola gifted a collection of Cypriot pottery to the newly formed American University of Beirut. Between 1902 and 1938 the Museum acquired collections from all around the Middle East. The museum remained closed during World War II and re-opened in 1948. It expanded in the 1950s and doubled its floor space with a refurbishment under curator Dimitri Baramki which opened to the public in 1964. The collections are organized by chronology and themes with displays along the sides of the gallery displaying the evolution of pottery. Other displays include The Cesnola Collection; the museums first showing pottery from Cyprus from the Bronze Age to the Roman era. The Pre-Historic collection includes Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. The Ksar Akil collection was donated from the University of Boston team who excavated this archaeological site in 1948. The display shows a 23 m stratigraphic sequence of thirty-seven layers illustrated by the flint tools belonging to several cultures detected.
  Sursock Museum is a museum of modern art in the Achrafieh district of Beirut, Lebanon. It belonged to Nicolas Sursock who bequeathed his villa to the city of Beirut after his death in 1961. The museum is an 18th-century mansion built with strong Venetian and Ottoman architectural influences. It is located on Rue Sursock east of the Beirut Central District. The museum collection consists of 5,000 pieces, such as paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glassware, and iconography, dating from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Some of the local and international artists whose wo
caption: Sursock Museum
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