Ras Beirut is the peninsula at the western tip of Beirut, Lebanon — the headland that includes Manara, the Corniche, Raouche (the Pigeon Rocks), the American University of Beirut, and Hamra.

What does Manara mean?

Manara is Arabic for lighthouse. The Manara district at the western edge of Ras Beirut takes its name from the lighthouse on the coast. Sporting Club Beach sits on the rocky shore at the foot of Manara.

What are the Pigeon Rocks?

The Pigeon Rocks — Raouche — are two natural sea arches off the southwestern point of Ras Beirut, the most recognised natural landmark in Beirut, best seen from the Corniche above or from the water.

What is the oldest beach club in Ras Beirut?

Sporting Club Beach, founded in 1953 on the Manara shoreline, is the oldest beach club on the Ras Beirut peninsula and has remained open continuously since.

Ras Beirut: A Guide From the Sea Up

Ras Beirut is the peninsula at the western tip of the city — the headland where Beirut runs out of land and into the Mediterranean. It is the part of the city that has kept the most of itself: the university, the seafront promenade, the rocks, and a handful of institutions old enough to predate almost everything around them.

This is a guide to it from the sea up, written from the shoreline Sporting Club Beach has occupied since 1953.

Manara — the lighthouse end

Manara means lighthouse, and that is what gives this stretch its name. It is the western edge of the headland, where the Corniche curves and the open sea begins. The light has guided boats off this coast for generations; the neighbourhood took its name and kept it. Sporting sits on the rocky shore here, at the foot of Manara.

The Corniche

Beirut's seafront promenade runs along the northern and western edge of Ras Beirut — a wide pedestrian walk above the Mediterranean where the whole city comes to move: walkers at dawn, fishermen at all hours, families at dusk, the entire social cross-section of Beirut in one strip. It is free, public, and one of the most democratic spaces in the city. The Corniche is the connective tissue of the whole peninsula.

Raouche and the Pigeon Rocks

At the southwestern point stand the Pigeon Rocks — Raouche — two sea arches rising out of the water, the most photographed natural landmark in Beirut (Wikipedia). They are best seen from the Corniche above, or from the water itself; the deeper dives off Sporting's shore run toward them when the sea allows.

Just south is Ramlet al-Baida, Beirut's only free public sand beach (Wikipedia) — a reminder of how little of the city's coast remains open and unbuilt.

AUB and Hamra

Inland, Ras Beirut is anchored by the American University of Beirut, founded 1866, whose campus runs down toward the sea, and by Hamra — historically the city's most cosmopolitan district, dense with bookshops, cafés, and a street life that has outlasted decades of upheaval. Sporting's own founder, George Abou Nassar, was an AUB graduate; the club and the university have shared this headland for over seventy years.

Where Sporting fits

Sporting Club Beach is the oldest beach club on the peninsula, and one of the few institutions on this coast that has been continuously open since before the Pigeon Rocks were a postcard cliché. To read the neighbourhood from the water is to read it the way the club has watched it: the lighthouse, the Corniche, the rocks, the university — the same view, more or less, since 1953. Our full story is here.

Frequently asked

Where is Ras Beirut?: Ras Beirut is the peninsula at the western tip of Beirut, Lebanon — the headland that includes Manara, the Corniche, Raouche (the Pigeon Rocks), the American University of Beirut, and Hamra.
What does Manara mean?: Manara is Arabic for lighthouse. The Manara district at the western edge of Ras Beirut takes its name from the lighthouse on the coast. Sporting Club Beach sits on the rocky shore at the foot of Manara.
What are the Pigeon Rocks?: The Pigeon Rocks — Raouche — are two natural sea arches off the southwestern point of Ras Beirut, the most recognised natural landmark in Beirut, best seen from the Corniche above or from the water.
What is the oldest beach club in Ras Beirut?: Sporting Club Beach, founded in 1953 on the Manara shoreline, is the oldest beach club on the Ras Beirut peninsula and has remained open continuously since.