Roumieh
|
Roumieh Roumie |
|
|---|---|
| City | |
 Roumieh
|
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| Coordinates: 33°52′28″N 35°39′00″E / 33.87450°N 35.6500°ECoordinates: 33°52′28″N 35°39′00″E / 33.87450°N 35.6500°E | |
| Country |
 Lebanon
|
| Governorate | Mount Lebanon Governorate |
| District | Matn District |
| Highest elevation | 700 m (2,300 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 550 m (1,800 ft) |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Dialing code | +961 |
Roumieh is a village north-east of Beirut in Lebanon. Surrounded by pine-forested hills, Roumieh is a 5/10-minute drive from the coast. Roumieh is known as a pleasant, picturesque small mountain town with many gardens.
In addition to pine forests; vineyards, fig orchards, olive trees and thyme grow in abundance. The village is well known for the Arak it produces; to the extent that some of the local residents claim that it is some of the best made in the country. A well known producer is the legendary Doumit who is the son of the late Hanna Doumit, the beloved shopkeeper.
Roumieh is characterized by a temperate climate, including dry summers, rainy winters, and transitional fall and spring seasons. It is located 550 to 700 meters above sea level.
The village's community is mainly constituted of Maronite Catholics and Greek Catholic, but also Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox. It is populated by 5000 residents.
The word "Roumieh" comes from Aramaic, meaning "hills" and refers to this characterising feature of the local terrain. This is understandable when one sees the "bumpy" pinetree-ridden hills in the pastures of the village.
Like all Lebanese mountain villages, Roumieh is marked with very beautiful terraces (Jleleh), designed to optimise the use of its land for agriculture and horticulture. Indeed, as cited above, some of the crops grown in Roumieh are exceptionally good given that the community had ceased to be an agrarian one nearly half a century ago.
There used to be several natural streams (Ain) that surfaced in the village which was a good source of water for the village community. However, due to disorganised and sporadic construction in some of the marginal parts of town, most of these have disappeared; and there is only one that remains properly functional, at the fountain in the centre of the village. The square surrounding the fountain has always been very pretty but has now been somewhat damaged by political slogan graffiti and the sticking of political propaganda posters on its premises.
One can find some very pretty traditional Lebanese houses (pyramidal red brick roofs, white or sand stone walls with overlooking balconies and verandas shaped with arches in the old Levantine style) in Roumieh. Examples of this are some surrounding the Saydeh Church, but also others in the Naas and Haret el Tahta and Fawka neighbourhoods.
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Wikipedia