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Zuqaq al-Blat (Arabic: زقاق البلاط{{#invoke:Namespace detect|main}}‎) is one of the twelve quarters of Beirut.^[1]

Etymology [link]

Zoqaq al-Blat literally means "the cobbled alley", this was a colloquial name given to the street extending from the old city to the Qantari hill and which was covered with cobblestones in the 19th century.^[2]

Zuqaq al-Blat is also commonly called "al-Batrakieh" (Arabic: البطركية{{#invoke:Namespace detect|main}}‎, the Patriarchate) due to the presence of the seat of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Beirut within its borders. ^[3]

History [link]

Once a medieval walled port town, Beirut experienced rapid growth during the second half of the 19th century; the overcrowded city developed beyond its walls and the affluent citizens started to build their villas on the slopes of the surrounding hills, namely Ashrafieh, Qnatari and Musaytbeh.^[4][5]

In 1832 Beirut came under the occupation of Ibrahim Pasha's troops. The new Egyptian authorities undertook grand works of urban planning and sanitation. The appointed Egyptian-Circassian governor of Beirut, Mahmoud Naami Bey commissioned street cobbling works which stretched beyond the city's walls, the street extending from the south-western side of the city wall into the new extramural neighborhoods on the Qantari hill came to be known as Zoqaq al-Blat and gave its name to the quarter.^[2]

References [link]