Lebanon is the mother of Europe. Europa was the daughter of the king of Tyre, carried away by Zeus who appeared to her under the form of a bull, and with her scoured the continent that now bears her name. The awesome valley of the river Nahr Ibrahim was the scene of the Dionysian Mysteries which celebrated the love of Ishtar (Aphrodite, Venus) and Adonis, who died and was reborn with the bacchanalia. The written characters of the Phoenicians were the basis of the Greek alphabet and the four-yearly games were another gift of Lebanon to Greece, to become famous later as the Olympics.

Lebanon is also a Holy Land, for the Gospels tell us that Christ came to Tyre and Sidon, preached there and performed a miracle to cure a Canaanite women. He performed his first public miracle here, changing water into wine, for now both historical references in the Church Fathers and archeological evidence confirm that the place referred to by John the Evangelist was the Cana of South Lebanon.

In the capital, Beirut there are universities and hospitals of international standing. All along the coast there are restaurants, beach lidos and places of entertainment, and of course supermarkets put all the brand names of the world at the disposition of the client.

One can never be weary of Lebanon because there is so much variety in a country only 10,452 km or 4,180 miles square. In a little less than an hour's drive from the coast one reaches heights of over 2,000 metres or 7,000 feet without leaving the road. There is fine skiing at a time when the Mediterranean is warmer than the North Sea is in summer.

While Arabic is the national language, everywhere there are people who speak English and French, while those of Beirut are largely trilingual. In half an hour one can cross the mountains and in the Bekaa Valley find oneself in a world more Arab by its climate, the style of the houses and even the men's dress in some of the Christian and Muslim villages. The coastal climate is ideal in spring and autumn, though rather hot, humid and cloudy from late July to mid-September. But throughout the summer the climate of the Beqaa Valley and the higher mountain slopes is very dry and the sky always blue, so the sun is not at all disagreeable but rather enjoyable.

There is probably no other country in the world where a foreigner so easily feels thoroughly at home, thanks to the open-mindedness of all the inhabitants of Lebanon whatever their religion and community.