The appeal of ashrafieh

Ashrafieh was never meant to be this crowded. Its six-meter wide streets gave it a village appearance as it gazed sleepily on the eastern edge of the original walled city of Beirut – roughly what is now the downtown area. Even 30 years ago land was plentiful and the roads were used to get to places rather than as temporary parking lots in the district’s nightmare traffic jams. But the rapid influx of people during the war, especially from Spears and Zarif, began a process of transformation of the essential characteristics of the area. Where land was once available for the rapid construction of concrete blocks of flats as architecturally uneasy neighbors to the traditional villas, now the villas themselves are increasingly under threat to satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand. The modern snob value of Ashrafieh also traces its origins back to the wartime era when it became a matter