Bab Idriss
About the place
- Country : Lebanon , Beirut
- Address : Bab Idriss, Beirut, Lebanon
- Category : Markets and Commercial Complexes
Bab Idriss
Overview:
Bab Idriss "is a commercial area in the center of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and it is one of the gates of old Beirut.
It is located on the western side of the old Beirut wall, and has an internal entrance that overlooks the tram line developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. The current “Bab Idris” is the area between the “Old Bazarkan Market” in the south east and the “Starco” building in the northeast, and between the "Capuchin Church" in the southwest to "Seif al-Bahr" at the Haji Daoud old café.
It was called Bab Idris, after Idris family, who lived next to the gate.
Historic overview:
The area known today by this name was part of the agricultural sector extending inside the old city wall, and the wall extended from this gate to “Souk El-Gamil”, where the last gate of the city called “Bab al-Sintiyya” was close to the sea, and in front of it was the “al-Sintiyya Cemetery” that was destroyed during the Lebanese Civil War.
As for the reason for his name, the “Idris family” lived near it, and it is one of the Beiruti families, whose members still live in Beirut, and because of the Idris family’s proximity to the gate, it was called by the name of this family, and it seems that the name became a name of the commercial area in which the door was located before its demise.
Maps of the mid-nineteenth century AD during the wars of "Ibrahim Pasha al-Masri" indicate that the Bab area on one side inside the city was a field of mulberry trees extending on the side of the wall from the sea to the gate itself.
Resources:
Yabeyrouth website
