(Presidential Seat 9 km)
Since the mid-1960's Baabda has been the site of Lebanon's Presidential Palace as well as the administrative capital of Mount Lebanon. A dignified Ottoman "Serail" (administration building) typical of mutassarifiah period (1861 - 1915) stands on a high hill. Today the seat of Mount Lebanon's Mohafazat, it was built in 1887 and enlarged ten years later. In 1903 the main gate and the emblem of the sultan carved above it.
The beautiful fountain in the of the town's roundabout, made of yellow stone and decorated with finely carved arabesques and calligraphy, dates to the same period.