Qurnat as Sawda

Where is Qurnat as Sawda?

Qurnat as Sawda is part of the Mount Lebanon range.

You will find it in: Lebanon.

Summit: 34.300° N, 36.117° E

The story behind it

The name of this summit is Arabic and is usually explained as the black corner, because the rock of the high ridge looks dark when the snow melts away from it. Qurnat as Sawda is a broad, bare massif of pale limestone, worn by rain into sharp ribs, hollows and deep holes where water disappears underground and comes out far below as springs. Almost nothing grows at the top apart from cushions of thorny plants, but on the western slopes lie the famous cedar groves of Bsharri, with trees whose thick trunks have stood for centuries. Snow can lie in shady gullies until early summer, while the coast a short distance away is already warm enough for swimming. Shepherds bring goats up in the warm months, and in winter the villages below the mountain are among the coldest places in the country.

Find it on the globe

Qurnat as Sawda is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.