Tannourine Cedars Forest — Virtual Tour
In the mountains of northern Lebanon, Tannourine Cedar Forest spreads across steep terrain where trees and rock seem almost inseparable.
Unlike the more open groves of Jaj or the compact forest of Bsharri, Tannourine forms a dense cedar landscape across deeply cut mountain slopes. Established as a nature reserve in 1999, it now protects one of Lebanon’s most important cedar forests.
Here, cedar does not simply occupy the landscape. It follows the fractures, ridges and slopes of the mountain.
Explore Al Arz Tannourine in 360°
The panorama opens onto a forest where rock and cedar fill almost the entire view.
Trees cling to steep slopes while the mountain terrain creates successive layers of depth. The result is a forest that feels dense, vertical and deeply rooted in the stone around it.
Tannourine, a forest among rocks
Tannourine is one of Lebanon’s densest cedar landscapes. Its rugged terrain has helped preserve a forest in which trees often appear to grow directly from rocky slopes and outcrops.
At Tannourine, forest and stone are inseparable.
In At the Heart of Our Forests, the reserve was already described as “an island of green in the midst of a rocky landscape” — a place where the density of the forest revealed the cedar’s remarkable ability to survive in a demanding environment.
But that apparent resilience should not be mistaken for invulnerability.
From the 1990s onwards, the forest was affected by a serious infestation caused by an insect previously unknown to science, later identified as a new species and named Cephalcia tannourinensis. Its larvae caused widespread defoliation, raising concerns about lasting damage to the forest.
The outbreak led to years of research, monitoring and conservation work involving Lebanese institutions and international researchers.
Tannourine is therefore a reminder that Lebanon’s cedar forests are not simply remnants of an ancient world.
They are living ecosystems, exposed to climate, pests, human activity and the continuing work of conservation.
Within the wider story of Byblos and the cedar, Tannourine occupies a different place from Jaj. The sources gathered so far do not allow us to link timber exported through Byblos directly to this particular forest.
What Tannourine offers instead is a sense of what the great cedar landscapes of Mount Lebanon could represent: not only a resource, but a territory and a living environment behind the ports of the coast.
Photo Gallery — The cedars of Tannourine
For the wider story connecting these mountain forests with Byblos: Byblos and the Cedar — from the mountains to the Mediterranean.
Sources and references
Lebanese Ministry of Environment — Tannourine Cedars Forest Nature Reserve: establishment of the reserve in 1999, characteristics of the forest, cedar density and biodiversity.
Lebanese Ministry of Environment — Saving the Cedar Forest of Tannourine: documentation on the Cephalcia tannourinensis infestation, scientific research and management measures.
Melkan Bassil — At the Heart of Our Forests, “The Tannourine Nature Reserve”: earlier photographic and editorial work devoted to the forest and its rocky landscape.
Visit Byblos aims to provide documented content based on identified sources. Some information may nevertheless evolve as research advances and new discoveries are made. Documented corrections or additional information are welcome.
Explore Lebanon’s other cedar forests and discover, step by step, the landscapes in which the cedar has endured through the centuries. Jaj, Tannourine, Bsharri and the Shouf: each panorama reveals a different relationship between the tree, the rock and the mountains.
Move along the line to discover another virtual tour.