Nineteenth-century houses, long staircases and the best surviving streetscape in the city — most of it damaged in 2020.
Gemmayzeh runs along Rue Gouraud at the foot of the Achrafieh hill, and together with Mar Mikhael beyond it, it is the most attractive walking district in Beirut.
The architecture
This is where the old city survives.
The characteristic Beirut house of the nineteenth century is a central hall with a triple arch on the facade, red tile roof, high ceilings and a garden. The form appeared in the 1860s, spread across the whole city, and is now almost gone.
Gemmayzeh, Mar Mikhael, Sursock Street and parts of Achrafieh and Zokak el-Blat hold most of what remains.
The staircases are the other feature. Achrafieh rises steeply and a series of public stairways climb it — Escalier Saint Nicolas, 125 steps, is the longest, with galleries and bars along it.
Achrafieh
The hill above: traditionally the wealthy Christian district, with the Sursock Museum, the surviving Sursock family palaces on Sursock Street, Saint Nicolas and Mar Mitr churches, and the Sioufi and Rmeil neighbourhoods.
Much of it has been rebuilt as apartment towers since the 1990s, and the fight between developers and heritage campaigners over the remaining houses has been running for thirty years. The campaigners have mostly lost.
4 August 2020
Gemmayzeh is under a kilometre from the port.
Along with Mar Mikhael, it took the worst of the explosion. People were killed in the street and in their flats. Almost every building on Gouraud Street lost its glass and doors, and many lost roofs, balconies and facades.
Around 640 historic buildings in Gemmayzeh, Mar Mikhael and Achrafieh were damaged, of which a substantial number were at risk of collapse.
The repair was done almost entirely by NGOs, heritage organisations and volunteers, with international and diaspora funding — the state contributed almost nothing. Beirut Heritage Initiative, Offre Joie, Live Love Beirut and others did the structural work, and campaigners fought off developers who moved immediately to buy damaged plots.
You can see which buildings were saved and which were not.
What it is like now
Rue Gouraud is busy again — bars, restaurants, small shops, galleries — though quieter than Mar Mikhael and with a slightly older crowd.
There are still buildings under scaffolding, still shored facades, and still empty lots.
It is the most pleasant part of Beirut to walk in, and there is no way to walk it without seeing what happened.
What to see
Rue Gouraud, end to end.
Escalier Saint Nicolas and the other staircases.
Sursock Street — the best surviving run of nineteenth-century mansions in Lebanon, and the museum.
Saint Nicolas Greek Orthodox Church and Mar Mitr.
The Saint Nicolas Garden and the small squares.
Mar Mikhael beyond, and the port beyond that.
Practical
Walkable from downtown in about fifteen minutes, and taxis are cheap.
The hill is steep. Achrafieh is genuinely uphill from Gemmayzeh and the stairs are the pleasant version of the climb.
Evenings for the bars and restaurants; mornings for the architecture and the light.
