|
Jieh الجية |
|
 |
|
| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | Mount Lebanon Governorate |
| District | Chouf District |
| Mayor | Dr Georges Nader El-Azzi |
| Geography | |
 
Jieh
Location of Jieh, Lebanon
|
|
| Coordinates | 33°39′56.51″N 35°25′36.46″E / 33.6656972°N 35.4267944°ECoordinates: 33°39′56.51″N 35°25′36.46″E / 33.6656972°N 35.4267944°E |
| Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Jieh (or Jiye, Jiyye, Jiyeh, Jiyyeh, الجية) is a seaside town in Lebanon with an estimated population of 5000[1], 23km south of Beirut, in the Chouf district via a 20 minute drive along the Beirut to Sidon highway south of the capital.. In Phoenician times it was known as Porphyreon and was a thriving natural seaport, which still functions today. The town is also known for its seven kilometre sandy beach, a rarity along Lebanon's mainly rocky coastline.
The Hebrew prophet Jonah was said to have landed on its shores when he was spat out of the giant fish described in the Old Testament, and a temple was built which stands until today.[2] Many invaders passed through Porphyreon such as Tohomtmos the Egyptian who landed his soldiers on its natural seaport in order to fight the North. Alexander the Great relaxed on its shore preparing for the attack on Tyre. St Peter and St Paul also walked through Jieh several times.[3]
In modern times Jieh took some of the harshest blows of the Lebanese Civil War that raged from 1975-1990. Being a coastal town made it vulnerable to the countless numbers of Palestine Liberation Organization raids on the area, as well as Israeli army invasions during the 1980s, [4] but the worst being on January 20, 1976.[5] Jieh is being rebuilt, albeit at a slower pace than the nearby capital city of Beirut.
Contents |
The town houses some of Lebanon's finest archaeological ruins, some of them buried under modern buildings, others waiting to be dug up by excavators, and others having already been removed and placed in museums. Mosaics depicting the story of the Prophet Jonah and the giant fish in the Old Testament have been found in churches dug from underground over time[6]. Examples of these are the grand floor mosaics from the Byzantine Empire period which were so big that trucks were needed to transport them to museums as was the case with the fine collection owned by Walid Jumblatt, a local politician, which are on display at his Beiteddine museum. Jieh has recently been the scene of accidental excavations of a Byzantine era Christian church and surrounding tombs which had been buried underground for centuries. Nothing is being done to protect them at the moment due to political hearings on the matters of the people versus the government - sec. landlords rights to perserve historical artifacts found on said property with vialble direct ancestry value and or documentation. The people versus the government - sec. landlords rights to preserve historical artifacts found on said property which directly pertain to all local populous religious beliefs, practices, and or scriptures or text. All which fall under the world perservation of historical and archaeological acts of 1971.
Actions to establish a new Jieh multi-denominational museum/preservation site are underway via the local community in its entirety. The site location is still to be disclosed via town meeting set to take place in 2010. The possible locations being considered are: The St. George's Cathedral, The Prophet Jonah's Tomb, The Phoenician Palace on the beach (to be donated by the current land owners the El Hajj family), and The Byzantine Palace (to be donated by the current land owners the El Hajj family). Note other locations can and will be submitted to the list up until the day before the town vote due to take place July 15th 2010.
 |
|
|
Jieh is home to many religious groups, mostly Maronite Christians and Shiite Muslims with some Melkites, and Sunni Muslims. The Shiite Muslims of this area mainly occupy the high rise section of Nabi Younes (Prophet Jonah) located in the central western and southern parts of the town on the coast. While the northen and central eastern area is occupied by the Christian and Sunni populous in the section of St. George's and Our Lady of the Star's Cathedrals. The rebuilding of Jieh's two churches took effect a few years after the civil war ended during the construction boom. On the left below is Our Lady of the Star, Maronite Catholic Church undergoing reconstruction, as well as the new St Georges Church featured to the right.
Many Christian families who fled the town of Jieh have sent money back to rebuild Our Lady of the Star, which still needs $1million to complete. The rebuilding of St George's has also begun. While the original Mousque of the town built directly over the tomb of the Nabi Younes to safe-guard the tomb, built around a century ago by the El Hajj family (one of the prodominate Shiite families in the village) still lies in ruins due to a dispute between Shiite and Sunni factions on the placement and erection of the new facility.
This has caused great strifes between all religious denominations in the region. More now than ever since Hezbollah stepped into the middle of the despute and errected a Shiite based mosque without finding a common ground between both Muslim parties and the consent on placement of the facility with the Christian denominations in the area to confirm that the volumous call to prayers would not be a hinderance upon their religious practices.
|
|
|
Jieh's main hub of tourism focuses on its beaches that cover its coast. There are many privately owned beach resorts ranging from the north of the town, which contains a few women's only beaches, down to Jonas beach on the very southern end of the 7km sand strip.[7]
Jieh is a town that houses the popular St Charbel College. The convent of Saint Charbel and the attached High School are run by the Lebanese Maronite Order of monks. It is the direct result of repeated demands by the local residents and two decades of planning and negotiations. Construction was completed in 1965. The mission of this project was to provide education to students of different faiths from Jieh and neighboring villages in the Chouf district south of Beirut. The convent and school were lightly damaged during the 1975 war and then evacuated in 1985 when the Christian population of the town was forced out. This time the structure sustained heavy damages and for the next six years became a living quarter for Palestinian refugees. Renovations started in 1991 after generous contributions from charitable organizations, local politicians and residents. As soon as the work was completed, 600 students enrolled of whom only 18 were Christians. Today both the convent and the school are fully restored and became a center of culture and education for students from the southern suburbs of Beirut to Sidon. [8]
Jieh is home to Lebanon's largest and oldest thermal power plant. Located on the southern tip of Jieh's border with neighbouring town Wadi El Zeina, this power station houses 5 units; the first two Toshiba units having been installed in 1970, while the three remaining turbines from the Brown Boveri Company in Switzerland were put into service later on between 1980 and 1981. The Toshiba units produce 65MW while the Brown Boveri Company (BBC) units each produce 72MW of electricity, totalling 346MW for the Jieh plant when at full capacity. Although this is only the second highest total capacity after Zouk from Lebanon's 7 thermal power plants, it must be commended for being the first and only one from during the 1970s and mid 1980s until the first unit at Zouk was put into service in 1984.
The power station at Jieh was closed for a period after the Israeli invasion in 1982, and so technicians who came to repair the older Toshiba turbines were deterred away from the country due to kidnappings of foreigners and the raging of the civil war. Likewise, the three Brown Boveri turbines had managed to get some service from BBC's India technicians rather than from the Switzerland headquarters. This meant that only minor repairs could be done, and so the generators could not run at full capacity. In 1982, the Lebanese Pound fell by a factor of 600 and so Electricite du Liban, Lebanon's government owned power company, could not afford to buy spare parts from overseas for its power stations. Hundreds of communities and ghettos across the country also refused (and still refuse) to pay electricity bills that funded the maintenance. This, as well as significant electricity piracy, resulted in deteriorating conditions of the power plant at Jieh.
Foreign investment, however, helped revive the plant numerous times until presently, although today the main problem is the lack of adequate fuel supply from the government that is needed to run the plant. Recent deals with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf have been sought to receive discounted fuel to ensure good supply to the power plants.[9] According to current news articles, Jieh's power plant is undergoing extensive maintenance due to neighbouring Syria's recent cut of power supply to parts of Lebanon, meaning that the Jieh plant is on its way to full service again.[10]
The recent July 2006 war between the Hezbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces resulted in the fuel stores at the power plant being bombed, leading to a catastrophic environmental disaster with crude oil spilling into the sea. On Friday July 14th at around 3am, the Jieh power plant was struck by missiles either from navy destroyers or from an airstrike aimed at one of its six fuel tanks. It was hit once more the next day when two bridges on the main highway in Jieh were also destroyed by missile attacks. Ongoing black smoke continued to rise from the plant for weeks after the attack as the nearby tankers exploded one after the other from the heat while the remaining tens of thousands of litres of oil spilled endlessly into the Mediterranean sea.
As a result of crude violations of the environment directly by the council of Barja up in the nearby mountains, the Jieh coastline has been subject to the continual release of unclean water through the Barja to Jieh sewerage canal. This canal routinely dumps Barja's human faeces and other liquid waste into Jieh's coastal waters and directly affects tourism and the environment in this town. There have also recently been plans to build a landfill in Jiyyeh.[11] This has met some hard opposition by some government ministers and angry locals who don't want their town being turned into a garbage dump, and so at the moment the solution to the problem is not quite clear. [12]
The power station oil spill from a July 14-15th Israeli airstrike has released over 16,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Mediterranean sea and has threatened marine life along the coast of Lebanon, mainly from Jieh stretching as far north as Syria and Turkey. For more recent information and photos on the oil spill and the clean-up efforts, please take a look at the websites: http://www.unep.org/lebanon/ and http://www.planet2025news.net/lebanonoilspill.rxml
Jieh is divided locally and unofficially into sub districts namely: Taht el Chir, Beit Chahine, Maqsabe, Haret el Kaneese, Qassouba and Nabi Younes.
|
|||||||
Redirecting to Jieh
   | BBC: 'Damage is done' to Lebanon coast - 8 August 2006 - BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Damage is done' to Lebanon coast |
| | BBC: Environmental 'crisis' in Lebanon - 31 July 2006 - BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Environmental 'crisis' in Lebanon |
|
|
Wikis
Map
Search
