Answer by Aaron Digulla for In Linux, how to ls -l a directory and not the contents of that directory?

Use ls -l -d dir (-d will make it stop listing the contents of a directory). From the documentation:

-d, --directory

List just the names of directories, as with other types of files, rather than listing their contents. Do not follow symbolic links listed on the command line unless the --dereference-command-line (-H), --dereference (-L), or --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir options are specified.