Nabatieh

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Nabatieh النبطية
City
Nabatieh, 2006
Nabatieh Location within Lebanon
Coordinates: 33°21′50″N 35°29′15″E / 33.36389°N 35.48750°E / 33.36389; 35.48750
Grid position	125/160 L
Country	Lebanon
Governorate	Nabatieh Governorate
District	Nabatieh District
Area
• City	8 km2 (3 sq mi)
• Metro	21 km2 (8 sq mi)
Elevation	418 m (1,371 ft)
Population
• City	40,000
• Metro	85,000
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Dialing code	+961

Nabatieh (Arabic: النبطية, Nabaṭiyya, Syriac-Aramaic: ܐܠܢܒܛܝܥ), or Nabatîyé (IPA: [ˈnabatˤɪje]), is the city of the Nabatieh Governorate, in southern Lebanon. The population is not accurately known as no census has been taken in Lebanon since the 1930s; estimates range from 15,000 to 120,000. A 2006 population estimate by the now-closed German population site called World Gazetteer put the population at 100,541, which would make it the fifth largest city in Lebanon, according to the 2006 population estimates of Lebanese cities,^[1] but after an update in either 2007 or 2008 and calculations for the following years the 2013 population estimate turned out to be much lower at 36,593 and making the city the 11th largest in Lebanon behind Tyre, Bint Jbeil, Zahlé, Sidon, Baalbek, Jounieh, Tripoli and Beirut according to those 2013 estimates.^[2] It is the main city in the Jabal Amel area and the chief center for both the mohafazat, or governorate, and the kaza, or canton both also called Nabatieh. Nabatieh is an important town both economically and culturally.

A market is held every Monday where traders and visitors from neighbouring villages gather in the centre of the town to exchange their goods in an area known in Arabic as the Souq Al Tanen. There are also branches of several banks, hospitals, restaurants and cultural centres of interest to tourists. Every year, the city commemorates the Battle of Karbala to remember the martyrdom of Imam al Husayn.

Nabatieh was the birthplace of several learned men, including linguist and Arab nationalist leader Ahmad Rida, historian Muhammad Jaber Al Safa, scientist Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah (nephew of Ahmad Rida) and theologian Sheikh Ahmed Aref El-Zein.