Zaghdraiya
| Zaghdraiya | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
 Zaghdraiya
|
|
| Coordinates: 33°31′32″N 35°24′8″E / 33.52556°N 35.40222°ECoordinates: 33°31′32″N 35°24′8″E / 33.52556°N 35.40222°E | |
| Country |
 Lebanon
|
| Governorate | South Governorate |
| District | Sidon District |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Area code(s) | 07 |
Zaghdraiya (also Zeghdrâya, Zoghedraya, Zghedraia. Arabic: زغدرايا) is a town in the South Governorate in Lebanon. It is located southeast of Sidon. The village is bordered with a number of villages/towns like Darb es Sim, Maghdouche, Miye ou Miye. It has a very small population and is mainly formed of very few houses and a lot of agricultural space.
The word Zaghdraiya means "castle" or "fortress" possibly due to the fact that the village is surrounded by hill tops in almost every direction.
In 1875, Victor Guérin found it to be a village of 150 Metualis, who planted figs and olives in the environment. Many of the inhabitants of the town participated in a lot of the country's struggles with Israel.
The town saw many struggles between its political party branches of various militias and the PLO (The Palestine Liberation Organization) which later spread to surrounding villages.
In 1986, two Israeli pilots on a mission to attack PLO targets near Sidon had their plane bombed and so the pilots ejected and parachuted down. One of the pilots (Yishai Aviram) was able to escape after being found by another Israeli helicopter, whereas the other pilot Ron Arad fell into a valley in Zaghdraiya and was captured by Amal fighters from a different village that were patrolling the area, Arad was then taken to Beirut and has been missing ever since despite various attempts and years of searching by the Israeli government to determine his whereabouts.
The town has very little inhabitants that are of a variety of religions that include Shiites as well as Melkite Catholics and Maronite Catholics as it shares borders with villages that are of Christian and Shi'a Majority.
A good portion of the town's population hold university degrees and work as doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, engineers including many of which have travelled abroad and went on to become very successful at their jobs. Others work in the public and governmental sector and a vast majority take good interest in maintaining and taking care of their crops and the town's agriculture. Many of the natives that went on to live elsewhere return on holidays/weekends to take care and see their lands.
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Wikipedia