BEIRUT, Lebanon — The sightseers arrived in sensible shoes, carrying water, cameras and snacks as they might to a historical walking tour of Rome, Paris or London. But before they set off, their guide, a bearded, pony-tailed man who resembled a storybook Jesus, warned them in jest: “There is no insurance for this tour, which makes it very Lebanese.”

Over the next four hours, the guide, Ronnie Chatah, pointed out sites associated with Lebanon’s civil war, discoursed upon the protests and assassinations that have punctuated the city’s more recent history, and even showed his guests what may or may not be the birthplace of Keanu Reeves.

The tour, which Mr. Chatah gives every Sunday afternoon, also seeks to bring to life the culture and history of a Middle Eastern capital better known internationally for its wars and assassinations than for its architecture and archaeology.

Adding gravitas to the tour is Mr. Chatah’s own painful link to the city’s history. In 2013, a car bomb killed his father, Mohamad B. Chatah, a former finance minister and ambassador to the United States, a short walk from where the younger Mr. Chatah now leads his tours.