Q 01/05

What is the capital and largest city of Lebanon?

A) Beirut

B) Baalbek

C) Tripoli

D) Sidon

Answer · why

A) Beirut

Beirut. Banking and tourism made it the 'Paris of the Middle East' in the 1960s, until the civil war that began in 1975 split the city into a Christia...

Q 02/05

Which northern port is Lebanon's second-largest city?

A) Tripoli

B) Sidon

C) Zahlé

D) Jounieh

Answer · why

A) Tripoli

Tripoli. Its Greek name means 'three cities': ancient writers say settlers from three Phoenician ports each founded a quarter of their own there, a sh...

Q 03/05

Which invention did the Phoenicians of the Lebanese coast carry across the Mediterranean, where the Greeks adopted it?

A) Coined money

B) The keystone arch

C) The alphabet

D) Lateen sails

Answer · why

C) The alphabet

The alphabet. Their 22 letters stood for consonants only; the Greeks borrowed the set and added vowels, and the Latin letters used for English descend...

Q 04/05

Which ancient Lebanese port is thought to have given Greek its word for papyrus?

A) Byblos

B) Tripoli

C) Sidon

D) Tyre

Answer · why

A) Byblos

Byblos. Egyptian papyrus reached Greece through the port, so the Greeks seem to have named the material after it; 'biblion', a papyrus scroll, later b...

Q 05/05

According to the Bible, which king of Tyre supplied timber and craftsmen for Solomon's Temple?

A) Pygmalion

B) Abibaal

C) Hiram

D) Ithobaal

Answer · why

C) Hiram

Hiram. The Book of Kings has him float the logs down the coast as rafts in return for yearly shipments of wheat and olive oil, and Solomon later hands...