The Chouf is one of the districts of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, with Beiteddine as its administrative capital. Chouf App is a utility app for residents of the Chouf — it connects Chouf towns with Chouf-area stores for shopping and with a directory of trusted local trades.
capital Beiteddine · area ~495 km² · part of Mount Lebanon Governorate
The Chouf district sits on the western slopes of the Mount Lebanon range, south-east of Beirut. It stretches from the coastline near Damour and Naameh inland up to the high ridges around the Barouk and Niha mountains. The district groups together close to a hundred towns and villages, from coastal towns like Jiyeh and Damour to mountain villages like Maaser El Chouf and Niha.
The Chouf is best known nationally for the Al-Shouf Cedar Reserve, the largest nature reserve in Lebanon. It protects some of the country's oldest cedar groves, including the cedars of Barouk, Maaser El Chouf and Ain Zhalta. The reserve is part of the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, designated under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme.
The Chouf was the heartland of the Emirate of Mount Lebanon for several centuries. Deir el-Qamar served as the capital of the emirate from the 16th to the 18th century, and Beiteddine — built in the early 19th century under Emir Bashir Shihab II — later took over the role and still gives its name to the modern district capital. The region remained politically central through the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon and into the modern Lebanese state.
The Chouf is socially mixed: it is home to the largest Druze community in Lebanon, alongside long-established Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Sunni Muslim communities. Many towns are themselves mixed, and the district's modern political and civic life has long reflected that.