Byblos is one of the top contenders for the “oldest continuously inhabited city in the world” award. According to Phoenician tradition, Byblos was founded by the god El, and even the Phoenicians considered it a city of great antiquity. Although its beginnings are lost in time, modern scholars say the site of Byblos goes back at least 7,000 years.

The words “Byblos” and “Phoenicia” would not have been recognized by the city's early inhabitants. For several thousand years the city was called “Gubla” and later “Gebal,” while the term “Canaan” was applied to the coast in general. It was the Greeks, sometime after 1200 B.C., who gave us the name “Phoenicia,” referring to the coastal area. The Greeks called the city “Byblos” (meaning “papyrus” in Greek), because this commercial center was important in the papyrus trade.
 

Today, Byblos (Jbeil in Arabic), located on the coast 37 kilometers north of Beirut, is a prosperous place with glass-fronted office buildings and crowded streets. But within the old town, medieval Arab and Crusader remains are continuous reminders of the past. Nearby are the extensive excavations that make Byblos one of the most important archaeological sites in the area. The site contains layers upon layers of ruins, dating as far back as the Stone Age and extending through the more recent Ottoman era.