Anjar 1939-2019 : Rebuilding Mussa Dagh in Lebanon

Rebuilding an Armenian city in Lebanon: an astounding architectural history, told through archival and contemporary photographs

The city of Anjar lies about 37 miles east of Beirut, in Lebanon. Its history borders on the miraculous. It was conceived, designed and built between the end of the 1930s and the early 1940s, constructed from scratch by its majority Armenian population—all survivors of the Armenian Genocide, originally from Musa Dagh in present-day Turkey—who managed to buy the land with support from the French colonial government. The planning allotted each family some land and a house, and three Armenian Apostolic schools were built.

In celebration of the city’s 80th anniversary, the architect and photographer Vartivar Jaklian (born 1976) and architect and filmmaker Hossep Baboyan (born 1976) document and discuss this utopia through historical and current photographs, as well as companion texts.