Tripoli, Mediterranean port city in northern Lebanon
Tripoli is a port city on the eastern Mediterranean in northern Lebanon, spreading along the coast and the Abu Ali River. The cityscape links a medieval fortress on a hill with an older harbor district, from which narrow lanes lead inland into the old town.
Phoenician traders founded three separate settlements here in the 7th century BCE, which later merged into a single port town. In the Middle Ages, Mamluk rulers expanded the city with numerous buildings and made it an important hub for trade between Egypt and Syria.
The name derives from the Greek Tripolis, meaning three cities, referring to the Phoenician settlements once standing side by side. Today, large mosques with open courtyards and narrow lanes lined with stone vaults shape the old center, where traders display their goods much as they have done for centuries.
A visit can start with a walk through the covered lanes of the old town, where workshops and small shops line up side by side. The fortress on the hill offers a view over the city and lies about a 20-minute walk from the center.
The citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles still preserves inscriptions and building parts from different eras embedded in its walls. Some stones show Phoenician and Roman lettering that was reused during later reconstructions.
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