Lebanon is home to the ancient city of Anjar, an Umayyad archaeological site in the Bekaa Valley.
Anjar was founded in the early eighth century during the Umayyad caliphate, traditionally associated with Caliph al-Walid I. Unlike many ancient Lebanese settlements that grew over long periods, Anjar was planned as a new city with a regular street grid and monumental architecture.
The ruins include a grand palace, a mosque, a bath complex, a smaller palace, and fortified walls with towers. Their layout and decorative details show a mixture of Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic architectural traditions. This combination makes Anjar particularly valuable for studying the development of early Islamic urban design.
The city appears to have had a relatively short period of prominence and was later abandoned. UNESCO added Anjar to the World Heritage List in 1984. It is sometimes confused with older Phoenician or Roman sites in Lebanon, but Anjar’s principal remains are Umayyad.