Tebnine

Tebnine تبنين
City
Village View from The Crusader Castle in 1969
Tebnine Location within Lebanon
Coordinates: 33°11′35.96″N 35°24′38.79″E / 33.1933222°N 35.4107750°E / 33.1933222; 35.4107750Coordinates: 33°11′35.96″N 35°24′38.79″E / 33.1933222°N 35.4107750°E / 33.1933222; 35.4107750
Grid position	188/288 PAL
Country	Lebanon
Governorate	Nabatieh Governorate
District	Bint Jbeil District
Highest elevation	800 m (2,600 ft)
Lowest elevation	700 m (2,300 ft)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Dialing code	+961 (07)

Tebnine (Arabic: تبنين‎‎ Tibnīn, also Romanized Tibnine) is a Lebanese town spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about 25 km (16 mi) east of Tyre (Lebanon), in the heart of what is known as "Jabal Amel" or the mountain of "Amel". "Jabal Amel" designates the plateau situated between the western mountain range of Lebanon and the Galilee. (See map)

Scholars have identified Tebnine as the town of Tafnis (תפנית) mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as a northern border of the kingdom of Judah. Frankish chronicler Guillaume De Tyr (William of Tyre) refers to the town as Tibénin (..nomen priscum Tibénin..), which might be an indication that the town existed long before the Crusaders set foot in Syria. Many of the existing families of Tibnine have a background makeup of Phoenician, European and Arab due to ranging influences in the region over centuries. Adolphe Chauvet noticed with surprise that a lot of the town folk in 1891 looked as blond as Germans, but gave no explanation for that: (Je suis surpris de voir passablement de blonds et de blondes, comme chez les Allemands. Le docteur Lortet a fait aussi,je crois,la mème remarque.) Early Irish troops in Tebnin made the same observation many years after However the chronicler Foucher de Chartres (Fulcher of Chartres) gave a poignant explanation: (Nam qui fuimus occidentales, nunc facti sumus orientales.= We who were Occidentals, became Orientals). Chauvet also mentions that the village history dates back to the Canaanites but unfortunately does not cite a reference for this assertion. However, in 1966 Lorraine Copeland and Peter J. Wescombe, published archaeological findings from two sites in Tibnine: Acheulean bifacial axes on the road from Tyre which are preserved at The American University of Beirut and dated to the Lower Palaeolithic era. On the road between Tibnine and Beit Yahum, Stone Age Megaliths were found and records of them preserved at the Institut de Paléontologie humaine in Paris.