The village

Faraya is a mountain village in the Keserwan District of Lebanon, north-east of Beirut, set on the western slopes of Mount Lebanon below the Mzaar plateau. Its residents are predominantly Maronite Christians, and like many villages of Mount Lebanon its life has long followed the rhythm of the seasons: orchards and vegetable terraces in summer, snow in winter. The name is popularly said to mean "land of fruits and vegetables", although this folk etymology is hard to verify.

An ancient landscape

The area has been settled since antiquity. Nearby Faqra is home to Roman-era temples, altars and tombs, and close to Faraya stands Jisr el-Hajar (the "Stone Bridge"), a natural limestone arch of roughly 38 metres carved by water over millennia. The Mzaar plateau itself is said to take its name from the Arabic for "shrine", after a small Roman temple that once crowned its summit.

The birth of Lebanese skiing

Lebanese snow sports go back to the early 20th century, and local accounts say French officers stationed in the country during the Mandate years were already skiing the slopes above Faraya in the 1920s. The modern resort took shape in the 1960s: in 1963 the Faraya Mzaar Tourism and Winter Sports Company was founded and obtained the concession to build and operate lifts on land belonging to the Keserwan municipalities. In 1965 the Faraya Mzaar Hotel opened and the first chairlift was installed on the Jabal Dib hills.

Faraya today

The resort, now known as Mzaar Kfardebian, offers around 80 kilometres of slopes between roughly 1,850 and 2,465 metres, and Faraya remains the village at its foot, with hotels, chalets and mountain restaurants. In more recent years the Chabrouh Dam reservoir has added a summer and autumn attraction, drawing visitors for its water and mountain views throughout the year.