Beirut Highlights
A curated tour of Beirut's most iconic landmarks — a city of extraordinary contradictions, layered with 5,000 years of history, 18 coexisting religions, Ottoman grandeur, French colonial charm, civil war scars, and one of the most resilient and electric cultures in the Mediterranean.
Trip Stops
- 1
The symbolic heart of Beirut and one of the most historically charged public spaces in the Arab world. Named after Lebanese nationalists publicly hanged here by Ottoman authorities in 1916, the square's bronze Martyrs' Monument by Italian sculptor Marino Mazzacurati (1960) is riddled with bullet holes from the 1975–1990 Civil War — left unrepaired as a reminder. It served as the dividing line between East and West Beirut during the war, and in 2005 became the epicenter of the Cedar Revolution, when over one million Lebanese gathered here to demand Syrian withdrawal. Adjacent to the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque and St. George Cathedral — all three within footsteps of each other.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 2
Beirut's largest and most striking mosque — a grand Ottoman-inspired structure completed in 2008 with a soaring 48-metre blue dome, four slender minarets, and capacity for 6,400 worshippers. Its construction was funded by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005 before seeing it finished. His tomb lies in the garden beside the mosque. During construction, archaeologists uncovered an intact stretch of ancient Berytus's main Roman road (the Decumanus Maximus). Open to respectful non-Muslim visitors outside prayer times. Free entry.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 3
One of the most remarkable urban reconstruction projects in history. After 15 years of civil war reduced Downtown Beirut to rubble, the private company Solidere rebuilt it from scratch in the 1990s — restoring Ottoman and French Mandate-era facades while excavating extraordinary layers of Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, and Phoenician remains beneath the streets. Today it's a polished district of limestone boulevards, rooftop restaurants, the Beirut Souks mall, Zaitunay Bay marina, and open-air archaeological gardens. Stroll the Foch-Allenby district for its 1920s European-style architecture.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 4
Lebanon's principal archaeology museum — a neoclassical 1942 building housing over 100,000 artifacts spanning prehistory to the medieval Mamluk era. Highlights include the Ahiram sarcophagus (10th century BC), which bears one of the world's earliest Phoenician inscriptions; stunning Byzantine floor mosaics; gilded Roman sarcophagi; and three ancient Egyptian mummies. During the Civil War, museum staff encased the most precious statues in concrete to protect them from shelling — some remained sealed for 15 years. The museum's own survival story is as remarkable as its collection. An iPad audio guide is included with entry.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 5
Beirut's most beloved art museum, housed in a magnificent 1912 Italianate-Ottoman villa donated to the city by aristocrat Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock upon his death. Set in the hills of the Rmeil district, its 5,000-piece collection spans Islamic art, contemporary Lebanese painting, ancient Korans, and rare antiquities — including what may be the first printed Koran ever made. The building itself is a masterpiece of Lebanese architecture — arched colonnades, ornate mashrabiya lattice, and lush terraced gardens. It suffered heavy damage in the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, losing its chandelier-filled ceiling and stained-glass windows; a restoration effort is ongoing.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 6
Beirut's bohemian soul — two adjacent neighbourhoods of narrow cobblestone lanes, ornate 1920s–1940s French Mandate apartment buildings with triple-arched balconies, and one of the Middle East's most vibrant bar and gallery cultures. Rue Gouraud, the main artery of Gemmayzeh, is lined with independent restaurants, craft cocktail bars, vinyl record shops, and street art murals by Lebanese artist Yazan Halwani. Travel + Leisure called it 'SoHo by the Sea'. The August 2020 port explosion devastated much of the neighbourhood, but Beirut's characteristic resilience has seen it substantially recover and reclaim its energy.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 7
One of the most haunting and powerful sites in the city — a 1932 apartment building on the former Green Line that divided Christian East Beirut from Muslim West Beirut during the Civil War. Its strategic corner position made it a sniper post for multiple factions across 15 years of conflict; the facade is still pockmarked with thousands of bullet holes. Miraculously preserved from demolition after years of grassroots campaigning, it reopened in 2017 as a museum and urban cultural centre dedicated to Beirut's memory and the war's human cost. The building's torn interior is left deliberately unconcealed.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 8
One of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the Middle East, founded in 1866 by American missionaries on a forested clifftop above the Mediterranean. Its 73-acre campus of 19th-century red-roofed limestone buildings, pine trees, and sea-view terraces is one of the most beautiful in the world. Open to visitors, it houses the third-oldest archaeological museum in the Near East, with 1,300 artifacts ranging from prehistoric tools to Byzantine mosaics. The campus blends seamlessly into Hamra neighbourhood, one of Beirut's most cosmopolitan streets, famous for its cafés and independent bookshops.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 9
A 4.8 km seafront promenade that encircles Beirut's Mediterranean promontory — the city's great democratic public space, where Beirutis of every sect, class, and generation walk, jog, fish, and watch the sun set over the sea. The palm trees lining the path still carry bullet scars from the Civil War — a detail that passes unremarked by regulars. The Corniche peaks at Raouché, where it overlooks dramatic limestone sea cliffs. Push-cart vendors sell kaak (sesame bread rings), corn on the cob, and fresh coconut. Best experienced in the golden hour before dusk.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
- 10
Beirut's most iconic natural landmark — two enormous limestone sea stacks rising dramatically from the Mediterranean off the Raouché headland, the taller standing around 70 metres high. The name 'Raouché' comes from the French word 'rocher' (rock), and the area has been inhabited for over 200,000 years — the oldest stone tools found in Beirut were discovered in these cliffs. The clifftop cafés above are some of the most atmospheric spots in the city, perfect at sunset with a Lebanese coffee and a view of the rocks silhouetted against the sea. The area is free to view from the Corniche.
📍 Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
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