Byblos

The site of ancient Byblos lies on the Lebanese coast

about 25 miles north of Beirut. It has been continuously

occupied since the late Neolithic Period (c. 5000

b.c.e.), and its tradition claims that it is the oldest city

in the world. The Greeks gave the name Byblos to the

site because they imported Egyptian papyrus, or byblos,

through the city. The Egyptians called it Kebeny, but the

name of the city was Gubal to its inhabitants, and later

Gebal. Byblos persists as the name of the archaeological

site, but the town’s name in Arabic is Jebeil.

For centuries the location of the ancient city was

forgotten until discovered by the French scholar Ernest

Renan in 1860. It lay under the town of Jebeil, the walls

of its houses containing inscribed stones from the city’s

ancient past. Between 1919 and 1924 Pierre Montet’s

excavations revealed the tombs of nine ancient rulers of

Byblos. Maurice Dunand succeeded Montet, conducting

excavations from 1925 to 1975.

The fourth-century c.e. geographer Strabo described

Byblos as a “city on a height only a short distance from

the sea.” It had an excellent geographical situation where

trade routes from north and south met. The city was

built on a promontory, behind which the mountains of

Lebanon came closest to the sea, providing easy access

to vast forests of cedar wood and reserves of copper ore.

On either side of the promontory were bays that provided

natural harbors, the larger one to the south. On the

north side lay the upper town, or acropolis, holding the

palaces and temples. The harbors were not particularly

large but quite capable of handling the goods that fl owed

in and out of Byblos. Exports included Canaanite wine

and oil and the all-important timber.

The earliest example of the Phoenician alphabet

(c. 1000 b.c.e.) is found on the sarcophagus of King

Ahiram of Byblos. Remains from nearly 3,000 years

of contact with Egypt survive, including artifacts inscribed

with names of pharaohs from all periods. Trade

was disrupted around 2300 b.c.e. by Amorite tribes

from the desert invading the coastal plain and attacking

Byblos. The city soon recovered and entered on a

period of great prosperity that lasted until the coming

of the Sea Peoples in the 13th century b.c.e. The

Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.e.) ushered in the Phoenician

age of Byblos: the blend of the coastal Canaanites and

the Sea Peoples. After 1000 b.c.e. the city was never

completely independent of the great powers, Assyria,

Babylon, and Persia.

Byblos always put trade fi rst and submitted to

its overlords, including Alexander the Great, towhom it surrendered and was spared. After Alexander’s

conquest the city slowly adopted Greek culture

and language. The arrival of the Romans in 64 b.c.e.

brought three centuries of peace and prosperity to the

city, along with the building of temples, theaters, and

baths. Byzantine imperial rule brought a Christian

bishop to the city, but there are few remains from this

period. In 636 c.e. the city passed under Arab rule

until taken by the crusaders in 1104. Around 1215

the crusaders built the Church of St. John the Baptist.

In 1289 the city surrendered to the Mamelukes, and

in the 15th century Byblos was taken over by the Ottoman

Turks, under whose rule Jebeil operated as an

obscure fi shing port.