Translated from German by Éric Verdeil, this doctoral thesis by Helmut Ruppert was first published in 1969 ( Beirut, eine westlich geprägte Stadt des Orients , Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Heft 27, 1969). At that time, it was one of the first attempts at a comprehensive geographic study of the city of Beirut. In a style that is sometimes reminiscent of travelogues xix th century, the author emphasizes in his approach a field survey, a survey of streets and backyards of the Lebanese capital in the late 1960s, which he presents as a kind of borderline between Middle East and West. After focusing on the history of the city's urban development, Ruppert describes the Beirut neighbourhoods, of which he analyses with precision the social organization. The work also takes Beirut through the prism of economic geography by reflecting on the functional structuring of urban space. Finally, thanks to the many maps and photographs presented there, Beirut, a city of the East marked by the West, is not only a reference book for the researcher. It offers a precious and fascinating testimony for anyone wishing to discover or rediscover the already multiple face that was that of the Levantine metropolis before |