Fakeha

fakiha

Bearing a name appropriate to the usage of a significant amount of its land, Al-Fakiha (Arabic: فاكهة‎‎, literally "fruits") is a village in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. The village is separated into three neighborhoods: Jdaydi, Zaytoun and Fakiha, the grouping adopting the name of the third one.

The Fakiha sub-village is mostly suburbia with houses built very close to each other if not on top of each other or connected in some other way. As a result, a close-knit community has developed in the village, despite two major religions being present: Sunnite Muslim and Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The most authentic families in Fakiha zaytoun and jdeideh like bayt Aoun and Kibar as they are have lived in this domain much longer than all the other families . The village is mainly Sunni.

Zaytoun (literally "olives") is a much more spaced section. The houses are built more modernly and spaciously, each boasting a large block of land (at least two to three acres). The land is used to its full potential, with the agriculture including an abundance of olive groves, orchards of apricot and fig trees as well as a variety of other fruits and vegetables depending on the whim of the farmer and his intention of use of the crops.

Within Zaytoun is a branch of the Omar El-Mokhtar educational facilities called Al-Qayrawaan. It is one of the few in the area that supports a K-9 English/Arabic curriculum with highly qualified staff. The sciences, mathematics and a language subject is taught in English, whereas the humanities and a language subject are taught in Arabic. Moreover, extra-curriculum subjects are available. The community present in Zaytoun shares the closeness of that of Fakiha despite the more spaced housing. However, its population is completely of the Sunni Muslim faith.

jdeide

The last of the three sections is the Jdaydi sub-village. It is similar in structure to Zaytoun, but the difference is that the housing is less spacious as is the land allotments. The community in Jdaydi is not as close-knit as the former two, with the tendency to form social groups more noticeable, especially among the youth. The population is a mixture of Sunni Muslim and the Catholic church. Jdeide or Djedeideh is very famous in the second world war as Djedeide Fortress or Djedeideh Gorge ^^The defence was to be based on a number of ‘fortresses’, corresponding more or less to the desert ‘boxes’, covering all the routes down through Syria. The Division's particular responsibility, the Djedeide fortress, was an important one, blocking the Bekaa valley, for centuries a north-south highway pointing at Palestine and Egypt. Near the little village of Djedeide the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges bounding this valley converged, making a naturally strong position that would be difficult to get at from a flank. The fortress was to be tank-proof, dug for all-round defence, and stocked with two months' supplies. All this was to be done by mid-May—Jerry, said the experts, would not be able to overcome all the obstacles separating him from Syria before the end of May at the earliest. ^The Djedeide fortress, sprawling across the valley and up the hills on either side, had already had some work done on it— an anti-tank ditch across the front was nearly finished. Fourth Brigade had the right-hand sector, consisting mostly of the forbidding Anti-Lebanon slopes; only 18 Battalion had a stretch of comparatively low, accessible ground. About a mile along the good main road running north from camp the unit's area began, and from there it stretched another mile and a half forward, astride the road, as far as Djedeide village, which was included in the front line. The battalion's mile and a quarter of front was to be held by two companies, B in Djedeide and on the valley floor to the left of the road, D among gardens and orchards on gentle slopes on the right flank, just above Djedeide. The rest of the unit was farther back, perched on hillsides on the right of the road, in the lee of a rocky spur which came down just behind Djedeide. The battalion's right-hand neighbour, 20 Battalion, looked down on it from the crags, while 18 Battalion itself looked down on the valley to its left, where other troops were later to come in and complete the line.

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