Riyaq


Riyaq, also romanized Rayak, is a Lebanese town in the Beqaa Governorate near the city of Zahlé. In the early 20th century and up to 1975 and the outbreak of the civil war, it was Lebanon's most important railway center, where the 1.05-m Beirut–Damascus line met the standard-gauge line north to Baalbek, Homs, and Aleppo. It now has an air base and a hospital. Riyaq Air Base was bombed by the Israeli Air Force during the 2006 Lebanon War. The landing strip was severely damaged as a result.

General information

Altitude: 930 m

Latitude: 33.85

Longitude: 36

Latitude : 33° 51' 0 N

Longitude : 36° 0' 0 E
Area: 332 hectares

Location: 176 x 212 Zip Code: 51311

Population: 3,349

Number of Homes: 1,200

Companies: 18
Distances:

From Zahleh 11 km

From Beirut 60 km

Archaeology and history

Rayak North is a Shepherd Neolithic archaeological site located on either side of the main road, north of Rayak. Flint tools were found there by Lorraine Copeland and Frank Skeels during a survey of 1965. Along with the Shepherd Neolithic series of blade-butts and end-scrapers, another series of large cores and flakes were found that Henri Fleisch considered similar to materials found at Serain and Fleywe that were of a confusing typology judged to be possibly Mousterian, Levalloiso-Mousterian or Heavy Neolithic.