Legend has it that Echmoun was a young man from Beirut who loved to hunt. The goddess Astarte fell in love with him, but to escape her advances he mutilated himself and died. Not to be outdone, Astarte brought Echmoun back to life in the form of a god. It is also said that the village of Qabr Shmoun, near Beirut, still preserves in its name the memory of the young god. In Arabic, qabr  means “tomb” and shmoun is a transformation of the name “Echmoun,” so the town’s name translates as “the tomb of Echmoun.”

Although he is known primarily as a god of healing, Echmoun’s death and resurrection also gave him the role of a fertility god who dies and is reborn annually.

As the god of healing, Echmoun was identified with Asklepios, the Greek god of medical art. The caduceus (a staff intertwined with two serpents), which is used today as the symbol of the medical profession, was derived from symbols representing these gods. The caduceus symbol can be seen in a gold plaque depicting Echmoun and the goddess Hygeia (goddess of health), which was found near the temple. It shows Echmoun holding in his right hand a staff around which a serpent is entwined. There is also an early 3rd century A.D. Beirut coin depicting Echmoun standing between two serpents.

Each Phoenician city state had its own gods, and Echmoun was one of the favorites of Sidon. The site of his temple must have been chosen because of the nearby water source which was used in healing rituals. It was the custom to offer statues bearing the names of those seeking healing as offerings to the god. The fact that most of statues found at the site depict children suggests that Echmoun may have been regarded as the pediatrician of the times.

During the Persian era, between the 6th and 4th centuries B.C, Sidon was the first Phoenician city to be noted for the opulence of its kings, the advanced culture of its intelligentsia, and the excellent reputation of its industry. The Persian kings held the kings of Sidon in great regard and granted them many rewards, especially for the Sidonian fleet’s active participation on their side during their wars against the Egyptians and Greeks.

It was at that time that Echmounazar II, the son of Tabnit I, acceded to the throne. Inscriptions found on the sarcophagus of Echmounazar (discovered in 1858 and now in the Louvre Museum in Paris) relate that he and his mother, Amashtarte (servant of Astarte), built temples to the gods of Sidon. One of these was the temple of the Holy God “Echmoun at the source of Yidlal near the cistern.”

During the archaeological excavations of the site, it was discovered that many Phoenician structures built during the 4th century B.C. were continuously restored and sometimes rebuilt by other peoples who used the site. For example, during the Roman and early Christian eras (64 B.C. to 330 A.D.), the site continued to be a place of pilgrimage, and the Romans constructed a colonnaded walkway, a nympheum, and other structures. These restorations allowed visitors, pagan as well as Christian, to continue using the sanctuary. The site remained popular until the end of the 3rd century A.D., even though it was largely in ruins and littered with debris. Even as late as the Byzantine era (4th-6th century A.D.), a basilica was constructed on the site.
 

The Excavations
For several centuries before its excavation, the ruined site of the Temple of Echmoun was used as a quarry. Emir Fakhr ed-Dine II, for example, used the temple’s massive blocks to build a bridge over the Awwali River in the 17th century. Today, only the foundations of this bridge remain.

 In 1900, an Ottoman expedition found Phoenician inscriptions in the area of the yet undiscovered temple. Twenty years later, successful soundings were made on the site, and in 1925-26, excavations near the river uncovered a Roman mosaic floor and several marble statuettes of children dating to the Hellenistic period (330-64 B.C.). Another inscription in Phoenician letters bearing the name Echmoun was found near the river a short time later.