The Khan Al Saboun eco-village, Koura, North Lebanon
The Khan Al Saboun story · Since 1480
Scent is memory.Memory is scent.
The old souks of Tripoli
A craft born in the Khan
The Khan Al Saboun story began around 1480 in the old souks of Tripoli, in the soap-makers’ khan that gives it its name. Its labels still carry the words Since 1480.
Soap making was a craft like tailoring and the other trades of the souk, passed from hand to hand. Then industrialisation arrived, machines took the place of makers, and one by one those crafts faded away.
Dr. Bader Hassoun
A small chair in front of a ruined Khan
Dr. Bader Hassoun was a gold engraver, working alongside his father and carving his art into gold. During the civil war in Tripoli his shop was robbed, and he could no longer feed his children.
His uncle asked him a simple question: why not return to your family’s craft, soap? With no shop and no capital, Dr. Bader began cooking soap at home. He, his wife and their children carried it on their backs down to the old Khan, by then little more than rubble.
There he sat on a small chair in front of the ruins and carved the soap into shapes of Lebanese heritage: the tarboush, the stone basin known as the jurn, the rose, the Citadel of Tripoli. Tourists stopped to watch, then to buy. Little by little, it grew.
Koura, North Lebanon
A father’s dream, fulfilled
In time, Dr. Bader fulfilled his father’s dream: the first eco-village in the Middle East, running entirely on alternative energy, in the Koura district of North Lebanon. Today it is Khan Al Saboun’s main home, pictured at the top of this page.
- The showroomMore than 5,000 soaps, beside the full Khan Al Saboun range
- The workshopOffices, the factory and the laboratory
- The libraryA scientific library
- The Valley of the SensesWhere the plants for every product are grown
- The familyHomes for the Hassoun family, because this is a family business
Botanical Care
Formulas built around oils, herbs and botanicals.
Heritage Craftsmanship
A family craft, since 1480.
Sensory Beauty
Scents that turn everyday care into ritual.
Recognition
Recognition & Certifications
Letters received by Dr. Bader Hassoun, and the certifications held by the Khan Al Saboun eco-village in Lebanon.
Letters
Certifications 2025–2028
Stories
In the press
- BBC News · 2014“Gold and diamond infused soap is ‘world’s most expensive’”
- Al Jazeera · 2016“Lebanese soap maker continues family tradition”
- Saudi Aramco World · 2010“Soaping Up”
Oriele Botanica · The Khan Al Saboun story in Australia
Bringing home to Australia
Oriele Botanica is an Australian company, run by Lebanese-Australians with roots in North Lebanon, the same region Khan Al Saboun comes from.
Far from family, homeland and roots, those of us who live abroad look for home in the smallest details. And the first thing memory holds is scent. Remember a person, a place, even a season, and its scent comes back first: winter is the smell of the earth, summer the smell of the sea.
So we brought Khan Al Saboun to Australia, so that everyone from the Levant and the wider Arab world can feel at home. And to show the whole world our heritage, our craft and our people, who can reach the world from nothing: from a small soap and a robbed shop to the world.
Pictured: our showroom in Melbourne. Oriele Botanica is the official Australian distributor of Khan Al Saboun.
For everyone who misses their grandma and finds her scent here. For everyone who misses home, family, any small detail of childhood, and finds it in Khan Al Saboun.
Oriele BotanicaThe ritual today
Made to be Used Every Day
Real moments from @orielebotanica_au. Tap a film to play.
The Men’s Ritual
Charcoal & Rose
Red Mud Mask
Shipped Australia-wide