For the fires of the Lebanese civil war to be kindled, there need to be certain religious, historical, economic and social conditions present, and all of them can be found in abundance in the city of Tripoli.
The Land of the Cedars’ second-largest city by population after Beirut and the capital of North Lebanon, Tripoli seems to personify its namesake, which in Greek means “three-cities,” for the Tripoli of today is divided three sections: the narrow Alawite quarter, the sprawling Sunni quarter, and the demarcation line, which just four years ago would transform into a war zone every day after sunset.