Port Explosion Memorial

The skeletal ruin of the port grain silos still stands at the north edge of Beirut, partially collapsed and visible from across the city. It is now the city's de facto memorial to the 2020 explosion that devastated entire neighbourhoods. A small commemorative plaza sits along the highway at the edge of the port; portraits and names of the victims have been mounted on nearby walls.

You cannot enter the port itself, but the silos and the surrounding shattered warehouses can be seen from the elevated road along the eastern Corniche and from streets in Mar Mikhael. It is a sobering counterpoint to the rebuilt downtown only a few hundred metres away.

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The blast on 4 August 2020 was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Around 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored unsafely at the port for six years, detonated and killed more than 200 people. No senior official has been prosecuted.

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