A Timeless Landscape of Sea, Salt, and Spirit
📍 Location: Deir al-Natour Promontory, Anfeh – Kurah District, North Lebanon
🔎 Category: Cultural & Natural Heritage | Tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site
🗓️ Tentative List Submission: 11 July 2019
📌 UNESCO Criteria: (iii) Cultural tradition | (v) Human interaction with the environment
Why Visit?
Welcome to Deir al-Natour, the soul of Anfeh’s maritime cultural landscape and one of Lebanon’s most remarkable coastscapes. Nestled along the northern Lebanese shoreline, the salt pans of Deir al-Natour form the largest concentration of traditional salt marshes in the country—possibly in the entire Middle East.
Once known as “White Gold”, salt was the beating heart of Anfeh’s economy, sustaining generations of fisherfolk and farmers. Today, only 11 traditional salt producers remain, keeping alive a vanishing art passed down through centuries—digging channels, wind-pumping seawater, harvesting fleur de sel by hand.
But this is no ordinary industry—it’s a living landscape, where:
🧂 Salt pans are carved into limestone terraces
🪨 Ancient Byzantine and Crusader ruins rest near the sea
🕍 The Monastery of Deir al-Natour, founded by Cistercians, overlooks the Mediterranean
🕊️ Migratory birds nest in abandoned salt pools
🌿 Rare myrtle fields and halophyte plants thrive
🧘 And pilgrims still visit for solitude, spirituality, and nature
A Candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Status
In 2019, Lebanon submitted Anfeh’s Ras al-Qalaat, Deir al-Natour, and Ras el-Mlelih promontories to UNESCO’s Tentative List under criteria (iii) and (v). Why?
Because these sites represent 8,000 years of continuous human adaptation to sea and land:
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Chalcolithic burials under the salt pans
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Phoenician-era salt cavities carved into the rock
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Greco-Roman and Byzantine wine presses and quarries
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Crusader fortresses with ramps to the sea
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Ottoman-era salt revival through hand-dug channels and windmills
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Spiritual heritage embodied in Deir al-Natour monastery, built on Byzantine ruins
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And a vibrant, though fragile, tradition of artisanal salt harvesting
This unique convergence of natural biodiversity, coastal geology, religious legacy, and intangible knowledge makes Anfeh a beacon of sustainable heritage.
🗺️ Coordinates: N34°21′00″ E35°44′00″
Experience the Last of Lebanon’s Salt Marshes
🚶♀️ Walk along centuries-old basins overlooking the sea
📖 Learn how local women once carried seawater in wooden buckets
🌀 Witness traditional windmill systems used to channel water
🕊️ Spot migratory birds nesting in salt pools
🏛️ Visit the Deir al-Natour Monastery, now restored by Sister Catherine al-Jamal
🧂 Meet the remaining salt-makers keeping the tradition alive
A Hima for the Future
On 22 September 2017, the Municipality of Anfeh declared the site a Hima in partnership with SPNL, reviving a traditional Arab model of community-based conservation. This ensures both natural and cultural heritage are protected, while enabling local ecotourism and education.
🌱 The vision: Anfeh becomes a model for sustainable coastal development, where the past meets the future, and heritage becomes a tool for resilience—not nostalgia.
Share Your Observations
Have you visited Anfeh? Participated in salt harvesting? Captured the beauty of its limestone terraces or migratory birds?
📷 Submit your sightings
📩 Or send your photos via WhatsApp to +961 78 767 149
