* The Phoenicians, the ancient Lebanese, were the first to develop an alphabetic script in 1100 B.C. They did so to facilitate their prosperous trade further.
* The Phoenicians sailors were the first to explore the coasts of West Africa and Britain in 1000 B.C.
* Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that does not have a desert
* On January 22, 1976, a guerrilla force blasted into the vaults of the British Bank of the Middle East in Bab Idriss, cleaning out the contents of the safe deposit. The boxes of cash and other valuables were estimated by former finance minister Lucien Dahdah at $50 million. It was the single most lucrative bank robbery in history, occurring during the worst civil unrest period ever in Beirut, Lebanon.