Having breezed through several world records in the
culinary field Lebanon has now gone for the big one -- the world's
largest national flag, and so huge it needed an airfield.
The Lebanese military on Sunday released a picture taken from
the air of the massive flag, stitched in Kuwait, assembled in
Lebanon and covering 65,000 square metres (645,600 square feet)
"unfurled."
Morocco is the current holder of the Guinness world record for
the largest flag, at a mere 60,000 square metres, a Lebanese
military spokesman said.
Now Lebanon's bid for the title has been displayed at Rayak air
base in the east of the country, in the presence of a
representative of the "Guinness World Records" book.
The country's green cedar emblem in the flag's centre alone
covers an area of 10,452 square metres, the same figure as the
country's surface area in square kilometres.
Tiny Lebanon has both a troubled past and a history of setting
the bar high in the record-breaking department.
It already holds records for the largest tabbouleh salad (more
than three and a half tonnes, or 7,000 pounds) and has also served
up a two-tonne platter of the chickpea-based dip hummus.
Non-vegetarians are catered for as well: in August last year
Lebanon gained an entry in the Guinness book for producing the
largest ever kebbe -- a dish of minced meat and cracked wheat.
Now it would appear to have cracked the flag record too.