Machgara
|
Machghara مشغرة Mashghara |
|
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Machghara
|
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| Coordinates: 33°31′41″N 35°39′6″E / 33.52806°N 35.65167°ECoordinates: 33°31′41″N 35°39′6″E / 33.52806°N 35.65167°E | |
| Country |
 Lebanon
|
| Governorate | Beqaa Governorate |
| District | Western Beqaa District |
| Population (1997 census estimates) | |
| • Total | 6,800 |
Machghara (مشغرة) is a small town in the Beka'a Valley of Lebanon, situated in the Western Beqaa District and south of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just to the northwest of Sohmor and southwest of Lake Qaraoun, south of Aitanit and north of Ain Et Tine. The Iskander Spring lies to the northeast of the village.
Machghara currently consists of many religious groups, including sunnis, Melkite, Orthodox, and Shiite. The city lies at an average of 1050 m above sea level, over 200 m above the course of the Litani River. It is built on the slope of the massif of Mount Lebanon.
During the nineteenth century under the Ottoman Empire, Machghara was attached, depending on the period, at the wilaya of Damascus, in the wilaya of Saida, or the autonomous province of Mount Lebanon (Mutasarrifiya). It was part of Greater Lebanon in 1920. Due to its abundance of water sources, the city enjoyed a development of tanneries in the early twentieth century. This industry provided equipment to the Turkish army before the entry of French troops. Machghara was a place of command and trade for the agricultural activity of a set of localities in the surroundings.
After its attachment to Greater Lebanon (connecting the Bekaa, North and South in Mount Lebanon) in 1920 under the French mandate, Machghara became garrison town of the French army which reinforced its centrality in the region.
In the years between Lebanese Independence 1943 to the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 were years of prosperity for Lebanon and Machghara, which benefited from the construction site of the Litani River Dam in the 1960s that created the nearby Lake Qaraoun.
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Wikipedia