Lebanon breaks Guinness Record with Beirut Iftar

A single Iftar table stretching 3,255.8 meters, longer than three kilometers, filled the Seaside Arena area, bringing together more than 5,700 orphans and underprivileged children in what is now officially the longest Iftar table in the world, according to Guinness World Records. The initiative was led by Lebanese non-profit organization Ajialouna, which has made large-scale communal Iftars part of its mission to promote unity, generosity, and social solidarity during Ramadan.

Breaking their own record

This is not the organization’s first entry into the record books. In 2017, Ajialouna set a Guinness World Record with a 2,184-meter Iftar table, hosting around 5,400 people.

Nine years later, they returned and extended the table by more than a full kilometer. The 2026 event, attended by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, transformed the Seaside Arena into a continuous ribbon of shared meals, stretching over 3.2 kilometers along Beirut’s waterfront.

More than 5,700 children sat side by side, sharing the same meal, under the same sky, in a country often fractured by politics and hardship. For one evening, the longest table in the world became a long line of belonging.

The power of collective action

Guinness recognition may draw global attention, but the real achievement lies in the scale of coordination and volunteerism required to host thousands of children. Events of this magnitude demand logistics, funding, organization and a belief that collective effort still matters. The record extended a table and, symbolically, extended a hand across more than three kilometers of Beirut. And in a country searching for cohesion, that may be the most meaningful measurement of all.