Tripoli

Lebanon's second-largest city and its northernmost seaport, Tripoli sits on the eastern Mediterranean with a walkable centre dense with cafés and Mamluk architecture — a concentration second only to Cairo. The Citadel of Tripoli, the largest crusader castle in Lebanon, and the Mansouri Great Mosque anchor the historic core. Just offshore, the Palm Islands nature reserve shelters endangered loggerhead turtles, monk seals, and migratory birds. The city's history reaches back to at least the 14th century BC, when the Phoenicians knew it as Athar.

• Population229,398
• Nearest water from center0.1 km
• Nearest mountain from center0.8 km
• UNESCO within 50 km4