Arts Ar-Rab Reserve

The Arts Ar-Rab Reserve is the famous cedar forest of Arts Ar-Rab, which grows in Lebanon, it is also called the “Cedar Forest of God”. The Arts Ar-Rab Reserve is located on the slopes of the mountain above the town of Bsharrë, 30 kilometers from Tripoli and at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level.

Once cedar groves covered huge territories not only of Lebanon, but also neighboring countries of Turkey and Syria.The use of their precious trunks and resin is mentioned in the "Tale of Gilgamesh" and in the Bible. For thousands of years, the precious cedars were ruthlessly cut down by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Turks and even the British, who used cedar wood to build the railway that connected Tripoli and Haifa.

To date, there are so few Lebanese cedars that together they occupy no more than 2 thousand hectares. Now these legendary trees are protected by the state of Lebanon, some of them are more than 2000 years old, they are difficult to cover even two. The average height of cedars is nine meters. One of the dead trees became the basis for the famous sculpture “Five Christs” in the Christian world.