Kartaba Profile Altitude: 1250m Distance from Beirut: 60km General Information From Beirut, take the Highway going north along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Jal El Dib, Antilias, Dbayyeh, pass Dog River tunnel to Jounieh, Nahr Ibrahim, Machnaka, Kartaba.

Kartaba Overview

Syriaque and it means the good, curing and balanced weather. Some novelist relate this region's name to Andalusia's "Kourtouba". As for ANIS FREIHA, he sees that the name comes from "KARTAB", a plant that grows in the arid mountains, thus we do not support much this theory and we rather tend to believe the first one since many of the surrounding villages carry their names out of the Syriaque or the Aramyian.

kartaba is considered the main largest village in the highland of Jbeil after Byblos city itself, as well as an important trading place for all its surrounding villages; Starting 1918, Silk manufacturing flourished in kartaba and the number of factories at this time was 7, where more than 500 man and women worked. An important number of silk produced was exported LYON city in France by the people of kartaba themselves through their agents.

After the crisis that destroyed this manufacture, the Kartabians started working the land, especially in potatoes plantation which they got well renowned for having for having such a fine quality, that a good potato got to be called kartabawi potato where ever it came from.

the Kartabians started planting Apple trees especially in the high hills of the village where you can have the best and the most renowned as well.

In 1915, kartaba had also its share of the famine that hit Lebanon, consequently an important number emigrated to the America's and reach to become more than the locals themselves, where many of them did also get important ranks and positions in the foreign lands.

Information From the Ministry of Tourism

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