Lebanon document photos online

Long before passports or printed books existed, a small port on the Lebanese coast was already shaping how the world reads. The Phoenicians of Byblos developed one of the earliest alphabets, and the city became the Mediterranean's gateway for Egyptian papyrus. The Greeks came to call that writing material 'byblos' after the port itself, and from it derived 'biblion' (scroll) and ultimately the word 'Bible' — literally 'the books of Byblos.' Byblos has been inhabited since roughly 5000 BC, making it one of the oldest continuously lived-in cities on Earth, ruled in turn by Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and Ottomans.

• Documents The very word 'Bible' traces back to Byblos, the Lebanese port through which Egyptian papyrus reached Greece, giving the Greeks their word for paper and books.
• Records Byblos has been continuously inhabited since around 5000 BC, ranking among the oldest living cities in the world.
• Citizenship Under a nationality law dating to the 1925 French Mandate, a Lebanese mother still cannot pass her citizenship to her children if she marries a foreigner — only fathers can, leaving some children effectively stateless.
• Passport In the 2025 Henley Passport Index, the Lebanese passport ranked 95th worldwide, granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to just 45 destinations.
• Border Lebanon refuses entry to anyone whose passport shows any Israeli stamp, visa or seal — and travelers known to have visited Israel can be denied entry or detained even with a clean-looking document.
• Currency The Lebanese pound has lost roughly 98% of its value since 2019, trading near 90,000 to the US dollar and forcing people to carry bricks of cash for everyday purchases.
• Money reform In 2025 Parliament authorized banknotes up to 5 million pounds rather than removing zeros, because reprinting every denomination in a redenomination was judged too costly.
• Diaspora Far more people of Lebanese origin live abroad than inside Lebanon — Brazil alone is home to several million Lebanese descendants, dwarfing the country's roughly 5 million residents.
• Independence Lebanon declared independence from French mandate rule on 22 November 1943, after officials were briefly jailed and then released under international pressure.