If you ever contemplate the history of Zouk Mosbeh, you are bound to sense how stepped this ancient town is in culture and civilization, already stretching back thousands of years as it crosses the threshold of the third millennium.

Thanks to its location at the foot of the mountains, this historic town lies open to the world. It has an air of peace due to its cultivated land and varied landscape and scenery. It has maintained its traditions thanks to its resistance to invaders desecrating its land and, one of them being this quest for knowledge due to its Phoenician past and its proximity to Jbeil.
This is why it comprises many churches, monasteries and church properties, which have marked the people with their rituals, visions and goals.
Maybe, this is also why it has opened its doors to the newcomers surging into it and turning it into a city…

Its name: according to the scholar Anis Freiha, the name of Zouk Mosbeh has three possible connotations:

1- From the Aramaic DAOUQUO meaning guard, keeper and protector.
2- From the Aramaic SHOUKO meaning market.
3- From the word DOUK meaning place, area and location.

But Father Lammens considers that the name is of Turkish origin while other historians believe that the word zouk is of Turkmenian origin meaning 'tribal colony'. The latter explanation is closer to the historical fact. As for the word mosbeh, it is a proper noun and an attribute.

Location: Zouk Mosbeh is an ancient town standing on four hills at an altitude of 250 meters in the southern coastal area of Keserwan; it stretches over an area of 4,258,499 square meters.

Boundaries: to the west the Mediterranean, to the south Nahr El Kalb (Dog River), which separates it from Zouk Al Khrab (Dbayeh), to the east Jeita and Aintoura and to the north Zouk Mikael.

Characteristics:

- A sea-bound plain (Al Wata), which stretches from Nahr El Kalb in the south to Zouk Mikael in the north. This plain that was famous for its agricultural nature transformed from the early 70's into a region of touristic resorts.
- A river-bound plain where agriculture still dominates.
- Two industrial zones (Ghlan and Al Shawyeh) that are among the chief industrial centers in Lebanon.
- Residential areas that have grown astronomically.