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Updates: 

There are two new provinces named Aakkâr and Baalbek-Hermel. FIPS 10-4 Change Notice 12, dated 2007-06-11, showed the new provinces. ISO followed suit on 2007-11-28 with ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9. The parliament approved their creation about 2003. They won't come into effect until parliament passes an implementation decree, which has not happened yet (as of 2009-02-24). As a result, most official sources, such as the Lebanese Central Administration for Statistics, don't list them. The American Embassy in Beirut (correcting an earlier message) reports, "the 2009[-06-07] parliamentary elections will assume there are 6 administrative districts, not 8."

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 was dated 2002-01-10. It listed new codes resulting from the splitting of South Lebanon. (My information is that An Nabatiyah province split from South Lebanon in 1975.) It also listed the provinces of Lebanon by their French names.

Erratum: In the main table for Lebanon on pages 215-216, the population data are 1961 estimates.

Country overview: 

Short name	LEBANON
ISO code	LB
FIPS code	LE
Language	Arabic (ar), French (fr)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Beirut

 

In 1900, the present area of Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of World War I, Britain and France partitioned the empire. Lebanon was created as a French mandate. Although it was referred to as the Republic of Lebanon, it was adminstratively subordinate to Syria. It became effectively independent from France on 1944-01-01.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: al-Jumhouriya al-Lubnaniya (formal)
2. Danish: Libanon
3. Dutch: Libanon, Republiek Libanon (formal)
4. English: Republic of Lebanon (formal)
5. Finnish: Libanon
6. French: Liban m, République f libanaise (formal)
7. German: Libanon m
8. Icelandic: Líbanon
9. Italian: Libano m
10. Norwegian: Libanon, Republikken Libanon (formal)
11. Portuguese: Líbano, República f do Líbano m (formal)
12. Russian: Ливан, Ливанская Республика (formal)
13. Spanish: Líbano m, República f Libanesa (formal)
14. Swedish: Libanon
15. Turkish: Lübnan, Lübnan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from Semitic word for white

Primary subdivisions: 

Lebanon is divided into eight muhafazat (sing. muhafazah: provinces).

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Arabic name
Aakkar	LB.AA	AK	LE10		776	300
An Nabaţīyah	LB.NA	NA	LE07	221,846	1,058	408	An Nabaţīyah at Tahtā	An Nabaţīyah
Baalbek-Hermel	LB.BH	BH	LE11		3,009	1,162
Beirut	LB.BA	BA	LE04	390,503	18	7	Bayrūt (Beirut)	Bayrūt
Beqaa	LB.BQ	BI	LE08	471,209	1,271	491	Zaḥlah	Al Biqā`
Mount Lebanon	LB.JL	JL	LE05	1,501,570	1,950	753	B`abdā	Jabal Lubnān
North Lebanon	LB.NL	AS	LE09	768,709	1,205	465	Ţarābulus (Tripoli)	Ash Shamāl
South Lebanon	LB.JA	JA	LE06	401,197	943	364	Ṣaydā (Sidon)	Al Janūb
8 provinces				3,755,034	10,230	3,950
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2004-2005 estimate. Arabic name: Name of the province transliterated from Arabic.

Further subdivisions:

See the Counties of Lebanon page.

The provinces are further subdivided into districts.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Lebanon lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Beqaa: Arabic al-biqa`: fields
2. Beirut: From Hebrew be'erot: the wells

Change history: 

1. 1920-09-01: Following the Treaty of Sèvres, where France was given a mandate over the area, the state of Great Lebanon was formed from parts of Beirut and Lebanon vilayets of the Ottoman Empire.
2. 1975: An Nabaţīyah province split from al-Janūb. The FIPS code of al-Janūb before this split would have been LE02, if FIPS followed its usual practice.
3. ~2003: Aakkar province split from North Lebanon (former HASC code LB.AS, FIPS code LE03); Baalbek-Hermel province split from Beqaa (LB.BI, LE01).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Aakkar: `Akkar (variant)
2. An Nabatiyah: Nabatîyé, Nabatiyeh (French)
3. Baalbek-Hermel: B‘alabak-Al Hirmil, Ba`labakk-Himmil (variant)
4. Beirut: Bayrut (Arabic); Beirute (Portuguese); Beyrouth (French); Бейрут (Russian)
5. Beqaa: Bekaa, El Begaa (variant); Béqaa, La Bekaa (French)
6. Mount Lebanon: Jabal Lubnan (Arabic); Jabal Loubnane, Mont-Liban (French)
7. North Lebanon: Ash Shamal (Arabic); Ech Chimâl, Liban-Nord (French)
8. South Lebanon: Al Janub (Arabic); El Jnoub, Liban-Sud (French); Sayda (variant)

Sources: 

1. [1] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).