Beirut's Port: A Tale of Human Expertise and Natural Uniqueness

When we talk about Beirut, its port is always present.

The story of human expertise and natural features makes Beirut's port unique.

The Pearl of the Mediterranean went through stages of development between 1832 and 1840 when the Egyptians decided to confront the Ottomans in the Levant through economic development. 

This development and increased trade between Beirut and Damascus motivated the French Comte Edmond de Perthuis, representing a French shipping company in Beirut, to request an Ottoman concession to rehabilitate the Beirut-Damascus overland road. Subsequently, he acquired the concession to invest in the port.

Beirut's port was officially inaugurated in 1895 with one basin, followed a year later by the opening of the Beirut-Damascus railway.

For a long time, Beirut's port remained the only modern port on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean until Haifa's port opened in 1934.

The direct competition between the French Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis and the British Haifa-Amman-Baghdad axis led the French mandate authorities to pressure the port company to build a second basin. Beirut's merchants initiated the establishment of the free zone in 1934 in anticipation of the global financial crisis.

The closure of the Suez Canal in 1967 expanded the targeted areas served by Beirut's port to include the Arab Gulf. This necessitated the construction of a third and fourth basin, using pioneering techniques in the region.

The Lebanese Civil War in 1975 halted the construction of the fourth basin and, most importantly, deprived Beirut's port of the opportunity to catch up with the containerization revolution instead of the manual handling of goods. With the war's end, the port quickly regained its role until the devastating blow came.

The explosion of Beirut's port destroyed a country and left behind a prosperous past, a present marked by an unresolved crime, and hopes for justice to shape the future – a future that history will rely upon to be upright once justice prevails.