[1] The Phoenicia was built by the Lebanese businessman Najib Salha, who founded La Société des Grands Hotels du Liban (SGHL) in 1953.

However its grand opening was not celebrated until three months later, on 31 March 1962, when Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid Karami presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony and actress Dorothy Dandridge sang in the Le Paon Rouge nightclub as the guest of honour.

Local architect Joseph Philippe Karam was commissioned to design a 22-story, 270-room addition, which opened on 19 April 1968, increasing the number of rooms at the hotel to 600.

It reopened on 22 March 2000, as the Phoenicia Inter-Continental Beirut, following a $100 million restoration project to designs by architects Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum.

The Phoenicia was damaged in the 2005 bombing assassination of Rafik Hariri in the street out front and closed for three months for repairs.

[13] When the Phoenicia celebrated its 50th anniversary, it revealed a collection of contemporary art, featuring works of Howard Hodgkin, Sam Francis, Jan Dibbets, Andy Goldsworthy, Paul Morrison and a Mud Circle by Richard Long.

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s Je veux voir [fr][15] (English title: I want to see) (2008), starts on the last floor of the Phoenicia: Catherine Deneuve says she wants to see the destruction of the 2006 Lebanon War.