Bechamoun

Bechamoun (Arabic: بشامون, romanized: Bshāmūn), is a town near Beirut in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It has an area about 6.6 square kilometres and elevation between 60 and 580 metres above sea level. It lies 8 kilometres from Beirut’s airport and central Beirut. The town has a population of greater than 80000. In November 1943, when the President of the Republic Bechara el-Khoury, the Prime Minister Riad el-Solh, and the majority of the ministers were arrested by the French mandatory forces, Speaker of Parliament Sabri Hmadeh, Emir Majid Arslan, Minister Habib Abou Chahla and the survivors of the French coup took refuge in Bechamoun and formed a free government, taking up arms in the event of a French attack. The government of Free Lebanon, known as the "Government of Bechamoun", maintained its positions until the prisoners were released on November 22, 1943. Bechamoun was the first village to have raised the new Lebanese flag, adopted in secret by the deputies.