Recorded UFO sightings in Lebanon date back to the times of Alexander the Great towards the year 329 BCE.
The army general reported 2 UFO attacks on his army. The first was during the Seige of Tyre in Lebanon (Sour), when he described two large fire-spitting silver shields appearing from the sky and diving down at his infantry, elephants, and horses as they attempted to ford a river. His army panicked and withdrew but made a successful crossing the following day. He also reported a similar incident where the attackers came from the skies and disappeared back into the sky.
On August the 4th of 1972, a disc-shaped UFO was reportedly seen by several family members in the Baakline region of Lebanon. One of several witnesses to the presence of this UFO in the Shuf Province claimed seeing a flying saucer in the shape of a bright red light moving straight off into space.
More recently on 20 September 2009, a large scale UFO sighting was reported by media outlets in Lebanon. The sighting of unidentified lights in the skies of Jounieh was first announced during a show on LBC called Il Maestro with Neshan. Allegedly, around fifty glowing metallic objects were seen in the night sky above the motorway Antelias – Jounieh. Cars on the highway simply came to a halt to stare at the lights glittering in the sky. Reporters and journalists ‘inadvertently’ happened to be at this UFO sighting, such as Nadine Abu Fadel (LBCI television), which destabilized the usual skeptics. She described the UFOs as descending to earth, then disappearing before rising skyward and vanishing. Witnesses described the UFOs as appearing to be about two meters in diameter. One witness, Gerard Araj, even managed to supposedly take photos of the flying objects. Future Television News also re-diffused the story on its airwaves. Whether this was a hoax, an optical illusion or collective hallucination, the media gave this UFO sighting a lot of attention in comparison to other similar events in the past. Some suspect there was a hidden agenda, and this was only a cover up to divert attention from a more critical situation taking place in the background at that same time.
See also UFO sightings Middle East.