Cedars of God

Forest of the Cedars of God

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Bsharri, North Governorate, Lebanon
Part of	Wadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab) Bsharri
Criteria	Cultural: (iii)(iv)
Reference	850-002
Inscription	1998 (22nd Session)
Area	10.2 ha (25 acres)
Buffer zone	646 ha (1,600 acres)
Coordinates	34°14′42″N 36°02′53″E / 34.24500°N 36.04806°E / 34.24500; 36.04806
Location of Cedars of God in Lebanon Show map of Lebanon Cedars of God (West and Central Asia) Show map of West and Central Asia

The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ Arz ar-Rabb "Cedars of the Lord"), located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon, are one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that thrived across Mount Lebanon in antiquity. All early modern travelers' accounts of the wild cedars appear to refer to the ones in Bsharri;^[1] the Christian monks of the monasteries in the Kadisha Valley venerated the trees for centuries. The earliest documented references of the Cedars of God are found in Tablets 4-6 of the great Epic of Gilgamesh, six days walk from Uruk.

The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks used Lebanese timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding, and in the Ottoman Empire their timber was used to construct railways.^[2]