Jounieh (Arabic: جونيه, or Juniya, جونية) is a coastal city in Keserwan District, about 16 km (10 mi) north of Beirut, Lebanon.

[1][2] Jounieh is known for its seaside resorts and bustling nightlife, as well as its old stone souk, ferry port, paragliding site and gondola lift (le téléphérique), which takes passengers up the mountain to the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa.

In those days the port was an important one during winter, as it served as a safe spot for ships sailing south to Byblos.

[5] The medieval Muslim historian al-Idrisi (d. 1165) notes that Jounieh was a sea fortress whose inhabitants were Jacobite Christians.

This affected the building industry and records in the town hall showed very limited number of permits given from 1922-1940.

The only active sectors in that period were schools, small crafts, and planting of citrus trees, sugar cane, and vegetables.

This situation stayed the same until the rule of President Fuad Chehab who outfitted the city with all that it needed to become modern.

Jounieh then awakened from its slumber with projects for roads, lighting, modern planning, a stadium, a tourist port, a government house, and infrastructure.

The construction sector developed slowly starting from Sarba to Harat Sakhr, and finally the coast of ‘Alma.

In the beginning of the seventies, Jounieh was transformed to a major and complete tourist center with the tourist network around it and on its edges including: Casino du Liban, the cable cars, the Harisa Church, the caverns in Jeita, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, and the port.

With the war of 1975, and the division of Beirut into East and West parts and the escalation of the violence, many people fled to safe areas and were organizing their lives in accordance with the new realities.

From 1980 to 1990, Jounieh witnessed a massive migration as a large number of the Beirut traders moved to its markets.

During the Civil War the ferry making the 120 mile journey from Jounieh to Larnaca was the only way to travel in and out of Lebanon for those living in the areas controlled by Christian militias.

[9] During the 1989 fighting between General Aoun and the Lebanese Forces 10,000 civilians from Beirut arrived in Cyprus over a six-week period.

[14] On 7 May 2005, a car bomb exploded between the Christian Sawt al Mahaba radio station and the Mar Yuhanna Church in Jounieh.

[21] Casino du Liban offers gaming and shows and is located in the northern part of Jounieh, it is also the biggest one in the Middle East.