In the past two days, the "Beirutshima" explosion came on August 4, 2020, which destroyed an important part of the Lebanese capital and caused the deaths of at least 137 people and injured more than five thousand, to join the list of devastating disasters that ravaged Beirut in past centuries, caused severe damage and ended Sometimes it is removed from the map before it is rebuilt and rebuilt

In 140 BC, Beirut was devastated and destroyed by the Hellenistic King Diodotus Tryphon during his struggle with King Antiochus VII for the Macedonian Seleucid throne. Later, this city was rebuilt in the Phoenician style and bore the Phoenician name Laodicea, and some historians called it Laodicea the Canaanite.
In 64 BC, the soldiers and generals of the Roman commander Pompeius occupied this city, which was named after Berytus, and was also called Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus after Julia, the only daughter of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

Natural disasters

In addition to human disasters such as those made by Deodotus Tryphon in 140 BC, Beirut was devastated by many natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods.

In the year 365, its coasts reached the tsunami waves that followed the Crete earthquake, estimated to have an intensity of more than 8 degrees on the Richter scale, according to contemporary historians. This earthquake left a high tsunami, reaching a height of ten meters, that extended to hit especially the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, causing extensive damage in many areas.

551 earthquake

And between the fifth and sixth centuries, Beirut lived through many natural disasters, which ranged mainly from earthquakes and floods. The most important of these natural disasters came in the year 551 during the reign of the Byzantine King Justinian I, when the city lived at that time in the wake of its worst crises due to an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and which received the X mark according to the modified Mercalli intensity scale and caused tsunami waves that affected a number of Byzantine cities.

In addition, the present-day areas of Lebanon lie alongside the Dead Sea fault, which forms part of the boundary between the Arab tectonic plate and the African tectonic plate, and this has led over the centuries to the emergence of many landslides and earthquakes, especially in the regions of Mount Lebanon.

According to contemporary geologists and texts dating back to the Byzantine period between the fifth and sixth centuries, a devastating earthquake struck Lebanon on July 9, 551, causing widespread destruction and devastation of several cities between Tire and Tripoli, and Beirut was among the cities most affected by the disaster. The man known as Hajj Piacenza, in his diaries of his journey through various cities, spoke about the devastation of Beirut and its transformation into a large pile of rubble and stones and the killing of more than 30 thousand people in this city alone.

On the other hand, the people of Alexandria and the regions of Antakya, which in 526 suffered from the ravages of a devastating earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands, struck the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and devastated Beirut. This disaster generated tsunamis that spread to many others.