Lebanon has been busy rebuilding its capital, Beirut, since peace returned to the embattled city in the early 1990s. Though the scars from years of civil war remain, life has returned to downtown Beirut. The former "Pearl of the Middle East" is once again an exquisite experience, a beguiling composition of cultures and faiths, perched on a breathtaking sweep of Mediterranean coastline. Beirut is now one of the most cosmopolitan and vibrant cities in the Middle East, and will again be one of the safest when its current political problems are resolved.
