Beirut is the capital, as well as one of the largest cities, of Lebanon. There is a cinema hall named The Egg near downtown, which remains an unfinished building. The foundation of the cinema hall was first laid in the year 1965; the construction was interrupted because of the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Today, the horse-shoe-shaped dome is one of the landmarks in Beirut. The cinema hall was part of a commercial and residential project named Beirut City Center, designed by the architect Joseph Philippe Karam. Since then the project has remained incomplete. In fact, there were talks about its demolition in the 1990s and 2000s. Students and architects demanded its preservation. The owners of the site also wanted to preserve it and wished to integrate it into their new project.
Due to the war, Lebanon has suffered a lot and witnessed major destruction of their cities. In fact, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, bombs fell on the Egg cinema hall and the marks of those are still present.
As per reports, the architect had come up with a beautiful design for the cinema hall. Had it been completed in time, films would have been screened here and it would have turned out to be a great centre for entertainment. During the Lebanese protests of 2019 and 2020, The Egg was used as a centre for talks and lectures by academicians, artists and students. This was called “eggupation”. Protest slogans were also written on the walls of The Egg including the call for the “fall of regime.”
Lebanon has been an area of conflicts and wars for many years now and due to this, the building remains incomplete. In recent times, the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon has caused many Lebanese, especially from Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, to leave their homes looking for a safe shelter.
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