Rachid Karami International Fair
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How it came to be
A decree-law of 4 May 1960 created a site for an international fair in Tripoli in northern Lebanon, and the land was expropriated in 1961. The fair was placed in Tripoli rather than Beirut as part of an effort to reduce regional inequality. Seeking an internationally known architect for its post-independence modernisation, the government chose the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, who arrived in July 1962 and spent two months drafting the overall plan.
Niemeyer designed the complex between 1962 and 1967, and construction ran from 1967 to 1975. On a 70-hectare site between the old city and the port of Al Mina he placed a huge covered hall in the shape of a boomerang where countries could install exhibitions, an experimental theatre under a 60-metre dome, a space museum and an open-air theatre. Lebanese engineering firms prepared the working drawings, and their experience with large reinforced-concrete structures influenced a generation of Lebanese architects.
Work stopped in 1975 when the civil war began. The fairground became a military camp, and the structures were damaged in firefights and looted. After the war the site stayed largely unused, and its concrete and reinforcement have deteriorated. In 2023 it was inscribed on the World Heritage List and, at the same time, on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
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