Beirut is divided along ethnic and religious lines. A fundamental division runs between the two hills on which Beirut was built: Lebanese Christians live mostly in Ashrafiyah, in East Beirut, while Lebanese Sunni Muslims live in Musaytibah, in West Beirut. Lebanese Shiite Muslims and Palestinians, who are mostly Muslim, now live predominantly in southern areas of the city. This combination of ethnic and religious groups, and their spatial distribution, has contributed to the violence in Lebanon in general, and in Beirut in particular. Since the mid-1970s, Beirut existed as a war-torn and divided city; since 1991, the city has been under reconstruction. Beirut is a cosmopolitan city, with a mixture of European and Arab influences, but it is also a city suffering from the blights of poverty and warfare. Around the historic core of Beirut, areas of poverty have spread, particularly to the south, linking the city with adjacent suburbs. The city's organization is haphazard, with residential and commercial areas intermingled, and with high-rise buildings next to tenement slums. On the city's northern edge, the port area dominates East Beirut; in West Beirut, important tourist facilities and institutions, including many of the city's hotels, foreign embassies, and the American University of Beirut, are located along the shore on the Avenue de Paris. The Avenue de Paris forms part of the Corniche, a wide boulevard that continues south along the Mediterranean and encircles much of the city. Avenue de l'Aéroport, a major thoroughfare, runs from the port area to the Beirut International Airport, 8 km (5 mi) south of the city's center.
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