Jounieh is a coastal city about 16km north of Beirut, known for its seaside resorts and bustling nightlife, as well as its old stone souk, ferry port, and gondola lift, which takes passengers up the mountain to the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. Above Jounieh, and on the way to Harissa, a small hill named Bkerké, overlooking the Jounieh bay, is the seat of the Patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church. Residents of Jounieh and the surrounding towns are overwhelmingly Maronite Christians. In 1932 it had only 1,286 inhabitants, but from 1980 to 1990, it witnessed a massive migration as a large number of the Beirut traders moved to its markets, so that today close to 100,000 people reside in Jounieh. By the middle of the century, it is predicted that Jounieh will become a suburb of Beirut.
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