Urbex Beirut: Abandoned Buildings and Scars of the Lebanese Civil War

First things first: Beirut is quite a modern city. However, even decades after the civil war, the destruction is still visible in many parts of the Lebanese capital. The ruins of once-impressive buildings stand among contemporary high-rises, while bullet-riddled facades and abandoned structures tell stories of the past. That's exactly what makes urbex in Beirut so interesting.

The Holiday Inn Beirut is probably the best-known example for war-torn buildings in Lebanon, but smaller French-inspired villas and houses bearing the marks of gunfire can also be found throughout the city. This mix of old scars and modern architecture makes Beirut a fascinating destination.

Map of Places for Urbex in Beirut

The Top-5 Places for Urbex in Beirut

Let’s take a tour of Beirut’s architectural heritage and scars of war! I’ve picked out 5 urbex locations in Beirut where you can learn more about the history of the Lebanese Civil War in particular.

Holiday Inn Beirut

The Holiday Inn Beirut is probably the most iconic war memorial in Lebanon's capital. In 1975 and 1976, it became a fiercely contested building and, after being captured by Muslim militias, formed part of the front line for almost 15 years.

At the very beginning of the civil war, the so-called Battle of the Hotels broke out in the modern hotel district next to downtown Beirut. Buildings such as the Saint Georges, the Phoenicia, and the Holiday Inn became key positions. Mortar shells were fired from here to the enemy's side. Today, the facade of the Holiday Inn speaks volumes about those events.

The Holiday Inn's history as a hotel was actually quite short. It was officially inaugurated just under a year before the civil war broke out. The intention was to make it an exclusive addition to Beirut's existing range of hotels. Instead, it became by far the most important and symbolic position in the urban warfare.

Today, the Holiday Inn Beirut stands in the city centre as a ruin and a stark reminder of the past. It is still classified as a military site under the control of the Lebanese army, so outsiders cannot enter. However, walking in the shadow of the building makes it easy to imagine how unthinkable it was back then to move freely through this area. It is all the more encouraging that Lebanon has at least left this part of its history behind.

Al Murr Tower

One of Beirut's most striking buildings is Burj al-Murr, also known as al-Murr Tower. At 157 metres, it is one of the tallest buildings in the city. Like many similar towers, it was planned in the 1970s and was intended to become Lebanon's most modern office complex during the economic boom of the time.

The civil war stopped the construction process, and, like the Holiday Inn, al-Murr Tower was used as a sniper position. The building was never completed and remains a stark concrete skeleton in the city's skyline. It is a striking reminder of the grand ambitions destroyed by the war since 1975.

➜ On a guided tour through Beirut, you can explore more places, hear about personal stories behind the buildings, and learn more about the Lebanese Civil War. Guyadeez, for example, offers an interesting walk around the city for 2 hours, along with other recommendable tours on GetYourGuide (ad).

Whether al-Murr Tower will ever be completed or put to use is very unclear. Some people would prefer to see it demolished, but bringing down a building with 40 stories would be a difficult undertaking. The country would also need a period of stability before such a project could move forward. Political divisions, Iran's influence, and Israeli attacks make renovation or demolition seem unlikely for now.

I couldn't find out whether it is possible to go up the tower. Apparently, there is still a military base on the ground floor, which could make entry difficult, just as in the case of the Holiday Inn. Still, it might be worth asking.

"The Egg" – A Planned and Abandoned Cinema in Beirut

The story behind Beirut's so-called Egg is rather unusual. It is an oval-shaped concrete structure that looks as though it has been flattened, right in the middle of the city centre. At first glance, it seems a bit bizarre: an odd ruin that makes you wonder what the architect had in mind in the first place.

The structure was intended to be a combination of a shopping mall and a cinema. It was to sit slightly elevated, with an oval shape resembling an egg lying on its side, creating something like an amphitheatre. Construction began in 1965, based on designs by architects and designers Youssef el Zain and Joseph Philipp Karam. However, the building could not be completed before the civil war broke out ten years later.

It is admittedly not very beautiful, with bullet holes from the war combined with numerous graffiti tags. However, it stands as a war memorial and a popular destination for urbex in Beirut. Plans to demolish the building were opposed in particular by students and architects, who even used the Egg as a lecture and discussion space during protests of 2019 and 2020.

For anyone interested in urbex in Beirut, the Egg is definitely a must-see. I quickly found a hole in the fence and could already see a few teenagers hanging out on the lower floors.

I gave the teenagers a wide berth and made my way to the very top. Passing some rubbish, dirt, and human excrement, I reached the auditorium. Standing there, it was easy to imagine what the place might have looked like as a cinema.

I made my way from the stage up the tiers of seating to the very top. The exit on the screen side offers a direct view of the strikingly modern Mohammed al-Amin Mosque. It stands in sharp contrast to the Egg's grey Brutalist architecture. On the other end, you will spot the Mar Mansour Church.

My attention, however, kept returning to the scarred concrete walls themselves. This is one of the best places to see the wounds left by the Lebanese Civil War in Beirut. It also makes you wonder how much hatred someone must have felt to fire so many bullets.

Al Baida Living Complex in Ras Beirut

Near the famous Pigeon Rock, also known as Raouché, on the coast, I found several more ruins. One in particular was a former residential building that I was able to identify as the Al-Baida complex, also known as the Fin Building. Its most distinctive feature is the staggered arrangement of the balconies, which were designed to offer views of the sea.

Construction work on the building was halted during the civil war, and the complex soon found itself caught between the opposing front lines. Militias took up positions inside, making it a target for shelling. The facade still bears plenty of visible impact marks.

After the civil war, it is hardly surprising that nobody wanted the building anymore. Unclear ownership meant that it was simply left empty for nature to gradually take its course. Today, trees are rising out of the concrete, claiming the structure for themselves: it's not exactly what the architects intended.

The Port of Beirut

On 4 August 2020, one of the largest explosions ever captured on video took place in Beirut. Some 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored in a warehouse at the port. The story of how the explosive material ended up there is a complicated one, and it reflects the state of politics and bureaucracy in the country.

The ammonium nitrate had sat unused at the Port of Beirut for more than seven years after being confiscated from the Rhosus, a ship that had been declared unseaworthy.

After the ship's owner abandoned the Rhosus and its crew, little happened for a long time. The vessel was seized, and its cargo was unloaded because of the serious explosion risk. The material was transferred to Warehouse 12 several years before the ship itself eventually sank in the harbour.

Safety experts repeatedly tried to find a way to dispose of the ammonium nitrate. However, bureaucratic confusion meant that nothing was done until that fateful day in August 2020. Welding work initially caused a fire involving fireworks. Shortly afterwards, the ammonium nitrate exploded with an enormous shockwave. It destroyed large parts of the port, the Christian neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael, and the grain silos. One of the silos can still be seen at the port today.

It is not possible to get very close to the site of the explosion. From the coastal road, however, you can get a good view of the silhouettes of the ruins. They are not remnants of the war, but they have nevertheless become a powerful symbol within the city.

In 2020, Lebanon was already suffering from a severe economic crisis, and the destruction of its vital port facilities deprived the country of a crucial trading hub, pushing it even deeper into inflation.

Architecture in Beirut: City of Brutal Contrasts

What fascinates me about Beirut's architecture is the mixture of the morbid and the ultra-modern. Smooth glass facades and contemporary green walls repeatedly rise behind buildings scarred by gunfire from the civil war. The city has become a kind of experimental playground for architects.

With its current architectural trends and general openness to new ideas, Beirut is reconnecting with the construction boom of the 1960s and early 1970s, when it was known as the Paris of the Middle East. Even back then, the city attracted innovative thinkers and designers. Today, internationally renowned firms such as Herzog & de Meuron are working on projects such as the Beirut Terraces, which opened in 2017 just a short distance from the destroyed hotel Holiday Inn Beirut.

What is particularly remarkable is how much the city's war history is incorporated into its architecture rather than being completely smoothed over or erased. The famous Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury's designs, for example, repeatedly use bunker-like and military elements. One example is the artillery-like structure on the residential building Plot #1072. Nearby stand older facades marked and scarred by war damage.

This brutal contrast is what makes urbex in Beirut so fascinating, with abandoned buildings standing alongside newly constructed ones, representing a stunning simultaneity of the non-simultaneous.

Find out more about modern architecture in my articles about Casablanca or the Northern Bus Station of Armenia.

Final Thoughts on Beirut's Scars of War and Urbex in Lebanon

More than 40 years of conflict have left deep marks on both the people of Lebanon and its buildings. The scars of war are visible on many houses in Beirut. At the same time, the city is defined by the contrast between these ruins and the latest examples of modern architecture. Trendy high-rises with green facades, designed by star architects, share the skyline with towering concrete skeletons riddled with bullet and artillery damage.

The contrast between the dilapidated old and the shiny new makes Beirut such a fascinating destination for urbex while also telling us a great deal about the city's history and its many tragedies. Today, you can walk along the old front lines in the city centre safely and realise that this used to be impossible in the second half of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Now, the Holiday Inn isn't a sniper's nest anymore but an empty ruin.

However, moving on from the Christian and central districts towards areas now associated with Hezbollah, you can see the militia's yellow flags fluttering in the streets - and encounter destruction from more recent conflicts.

➜ The moving history of Beirut and its civil war are discussed in fairly raw terms on the Walking Tour Beyond Beirut (ad), which you can book through GetYourGuide.

Even during my visit, I could hear Israeli bombs exploding, striking areas in the southern part of Beirut not far from the city centre. In this way, progress - represented by the imposing concrete ruins of the 1960s and 1970s - continues to be held back.

For Lebanon, a country torn between competing powers, this is of course a catastrophe. One can only hope that no more places for urbex in Beirut will be created through such destruction.

To get to Lebanon, I can recommend looking at flights to Beirut via Istanbul (ad). Istanbul is an important hub and one of the most common places to change planes. You could also spend a few days there, exploring the area around Istiklal Avenue or visiting unusual places such as Polonezköy, a Polish village on the outskirts of the city.