2012
My story begins long before the laboratory
Before scientists read my DNA, the olive had already written itself into Lebanon’s history, agriculture, traditions and daily life for generations.
Bchaaleh · North Lebanon
زيتونة نوح
Noah’s
Olive Tree
A living tree. An ancient story.
A branch of peace.
Scroll to begin
One tree. Many centuries of memory.
“Before I was known as Noah’s Olive Tree, I stood here quietly among the ancient olives of Bchaaleh. My story was carried by the people long before it was written by researchers.”
Carry the Branch ↓Meet me
The branch
of peace
In Bchaaleh, an old story has travelled from one generation to another.
When the waters of the Flood began to recede, Noah sent out a dove. It returned carrying an olive branch — the sign that life had returned to the earth.
The people of Bchaaleh have long connected that branch with the ancient olives growing high in these mountains.
Today, I carry that story.
In the story we tell here, the dove came to me, took a branch from my canopy, and carried it back to Noah.
Whether memory, faith or legend, the branch has become part of who I am.
I am زيتونة نوح — Noah’s Olive Tree
My scientific identity
My first name was a number
Science knew
me as BCH04.
During the April 2018 field campaign, researchers documented me as BCH04, measured my trunk and collected two wood samples for carbon-14 investigation.
BCH04 remains my scientific identity.
Today, زيتونة نوح — Noah’s Olive Tree is the heritage name through which visitors meet me, remember me and discover my story.
- Tree code
- BCH04
- Scientific species
- Olea europaea L.
- 2018 circumference
- 8.85 metres
- 2018 diameter
- 2.82 metres
- Samples
- 4A . 4B
- Sampling Date
- April 2018
Source: April 2–3, 2018 field sampling records.
Carry the Branch ↓
Archival record · BCH04 · April 2018
Photo extracted from the tree-measurements report provided for this project.
Photo extracted from the tree-measurements report provided for this project.
The mountain that shaped me
I learned to
live with winter.
I grow in Bchaaleh’s high mountain olive landscape, around 1,200 metres above sea level — far colder and wetter than many of Lebanon’s traditional olive-growing areas.
Scientific research on Bchaaleh’s ancient olives found suitable sandy-loam soils and linked its unusual growth conditions to the long cold season, high rainfall and mountain environment. My survival belongs to this landscape as much as to my own biology.
Despite winter cold, snow, drought, rainfall and many seasons of change, I remain alive and productive.
My age cannot be separated from the mountain that shaped me.
≈1,200 m
Elevation of Bchaaleh’s ancient landscape
2018
Ecological research on Bchaaleh's ancient olive trees
A story written in genes
Scientists began reading my family history.
My scientific record identifies me as BCH04. But to understand where I come from, researchers looked beyond me, studying the monumental olive trees of Bchaaleh to uncover the ancestry, diversity and relationships within the grove I belong to.
Beyond our twisting trunks lies an older story: the beginnings of olive cultivation, the movement of plant material across the Mediterranean, and generations of people who selected, propagated and cared for olive trees in this landscape.
Carry the Branch ↓2014
Can ancient olive life be carried forward?
Researchers explored how centennial olive material could be regenerated in vitro—showing that the biological heritage carried by ancient trees can also become part of conservation and propagation efforts.
2014
My grove holds more than one genetic story
When six monumental Bchaaleh olives were genetically studied, researchers found three distinct profiles. Some were linked to the traditional Baladi olive, while another represented a different ancient genetic profile.
2015
My roots reach into the Eastern Mediterranean
A wider genetic study placed the monumental olives of Bchaaleh within an ancient Eastern Mediterranean story, linking them to the Baladi tradition and showing genetic proximity to Cypriot olive material.
2018
The mountain that shaped me became part of the study
Researchers examined Bchaaleh’s climate, soil, growth and tree age. They found a relatively cold and rainy environment where ancient olive trees have continued to survive and remain productive.
2018
Age has not made my grove silent
Researchers studying Lebanon’s centennial olives found that the Bchaaleh trees stood out for their great trunk dimensions while continuing to produce fruit and oil with characteristics worth conserving and studying further.
2019
Scientists looked deeper into our age
Scientific documentation and carbon-14 work added another layer to the effort to understand how long Bchaaleh’s ancient olives have been standing in this mountain landscape.
2019
Our ancient form still carries living value
Researchers compared ancient Bchaaleh olives through their morphology and biochemical characteristics, showing diversity among the trees while confirming that their fruit and oil remain part of a living agricultural resource.
2023
Even the environment leaves traces around me
Researchers studied how mercury concentrations changed through the seasons in ancient Lebanese olive groves, showing that trees, soils and surrounding conditions can preserve environmental signals that science can read.
2026
My roots reveal another layer of our history
A large genetic study of ancient Lebanese olives found that many old trees had been grafted. The six monumental Bchaaleh olives studied showed matching canopy and basal-shoot profiles, supporting a self-rooted history for this ancient group.
The question everyone asks
How old
am I, really?
Dating an ancient olive is not simple. My center has changed over centuries, and some of my oldest wood is no longer there.
In April 2018, researchers collected two wood samples from my trunk for carbon-14 analysis.
1,700 years
Recorded in my surviving wood
Sample 4A
1,295-1,388 years
Surviving sampled wood
Sample 4B
1,719-1,783 years
Older of the two BCH04 Samples
These dates describe the age of the wood that survived and was sampled. They do not prove the exact planting date of the whole tree. Because my original center is not fully available to date, part of my earliest history remains hidden.
Carry the Branch ↓The culture around me
I stand inside a culture,
not outside it.
What has grown around me
My story is not only written in wood and genes.
Around the olives of Bchaaleh grew a culture of harvesting, food, faith, craftsmanship and mutual help.
These traditions belong to the village that cared for trees like me across generations.
Hands at harvest
Al-Aawneh—mutual help during the olive harvest—brought neighbours and families together. Harvesting was work, generosity, and community at once.
Oil in the home
Olive oil gave flavour to village tables, filled storage vessels, entered handmade soap, and helped families prepare for the seasons ahead.
Words that remain
Traditional sayings, poetry, celebrations and religious practices preserve the olive as a symbol of nourishment, continuity, blessing and peace.
Faith and blessing
In Bchaaleh, the olive is also part of faith. Around village churches and feast days, it evokes peace, blessing, endurance and the sacred bond between land, community and prayer.
“Oil is the pillar of the house.”
A traditional Bchaaleh saying preserved in the local heritage documentation
Discover More Bchaaleh sayings ↗
Now look beyond my trunk
I am not alone.
I am one tree in Bchaaleh’s monumental olive landscape. In the archival numbering used for the grove, I am tree No. 4. The trees around me differ in form and genetic identity, yet together we preserve a much larger story than any one of us could carry alone.
A living Ecomuseum
Protect the tree.
Keep the story alive.
Bchaaleh’s Ecomuseum of Olive Tree Culture is a living museum without walls. The trees, village traditions and people are all part of its collection. Preservation means caring for both the landscape and the knowledge that gives it meaning.
Take the story with you
Carry the branch.
According to the old story, a dove carried an olive branch from Bchaaleh as a sign of renewed life. What would you like to carry into the world?
Your journey continues
You have met one tree.
Now discover the village.
Walk among Bchaaleh’s ancient olives. Explore the Ecomuseum’s living heritage experiences. Meet the people who keep the culture of the olive alive, season after season.
The evidence archive
Explore the science.
These are the investigations behind the story. Findings about the whole grove are clearly distinguished from measurements made on BCH04 itself.
2014Six monumental trees, three genetic profiles
Chalak, Khadari and Haouane analysed six ancient Bchaaleh trees in relation to traditional Baladi olives. They found three profiles among those six and suggested these olives could be connected with early stages of Lebanese olive cultivation. Study and citation ↗
2015The ancient Eastern Mediterranean genetic legacy
Chalak and colleagues placed Lebanese olives in a broader Mediterranean context, finding significant Eastern Mediterranean relationships and genetic proximity between the studied Bchaaleh monumentals and Cypriot accessions. Study and citation ↗
2018BCH04 is measured and sampled
April 2–3, 2018 sampling records identify BCH04 with a circumference of 885 cm and a recorded diameter of 282 cm. Two wood samples are listed. This is a direct record of the individual tree. Source: Dimensions of the trees Bcheale, April 2018, supplied archive.
2018Cold climate, ancient trees and remarkable oil
An ecological assessment examined the village’s colder, wetter mountain conditions and ancient olive cultivation. Separate research comparing 28 monumental olives across Lebanon reported particularly large Bchaaleh trunks and high oleic-acid proportions in Bchaaleh samples—up to 77.64%. These are group findings, not individual BCH04 oil-test results. Olive characterisation ↗
2019Fifteen Bchaaleh olives: form and oil
A morphological and biochemical assessment of 15 ancient Bchaaleh olives described three morphological groups and reported that the tested oils met the evaluated IOC trade quality parameters for extra-virgin olive oil. Study and citation ↗
2024Dating the Noah trees
Camarero, Touchan, Valeriano, Bashour and Stephan reported carbon-14 dating for a tree from the Noah olive grove of Bchaaleh (1,161 ± 131 years). The article’s accessible abstract does not match this result to the BCH04 code, so it is not used as BCH04’s exact age. Study and citation ↗
2026Ancient versus modern Lebanese olive DNA
Youssef and colleagues compared 172 ancient trees and 129 younger trees across Lebanon and examined rootstock and canopy genetic material. The six previously studied Bchaaleh monumental trees were described as having matching basal-shoot and canopy profiles, consistent with self-rooted growth. Study and citation ↗