Lebanon first appeared in recorded history around 3,000 BC, with the settlement of the area by the Canaanites. The Canaanites established great maritime, trade, and religious city-states in several of Lebanon’s coastal cities: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut. The Greeks referred to these Semitic people as “Phoenicians,” after the Greek word for the expensive purple-dyed textiles that the Phoenicians exported.

• Byblos (Jbeil) was a significant Phoenician religious center and also an important trading center with close links to the Egyptian Pharaohs. The city is also recognized as the birthplace of the modern Roman alphabet, which evolved from Phoenician phonetic script. Phoenician ruins include the remnants of fortified city walls and gates, several temples, and the underground tombs of the Byblos kings.

• Sidon became a dominant commercial center for the region during the 12th-10th centuries BC. While later eclipsed by Tyre, the city rose again under the Persian Empire (550-333 BC), when it was world-renowned for its glass-making and shipbuilding. Close to Sidon, visitors can view the ruins of the Phoenician Temple of Echmoun, a complex honoring the principal god of the city of Sidon. This is the best-preserved Phoenician site in Lebanon today.

• The Phoenician island city of Tyre surpassed Sidon to become the dominant trading center under its most famous ruler, King Hiram I (10th century BC). Allied with King Solomon, King Hiram I led the Phoenician expansion into Sicily and North Africa. During this time, the Mediterranean Sea became known as the “Tyrian Sea.” King Hiram is also remembered for supporting the construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem by supplying labor, gold, and cedar wood. While there are few evident Phoenician ruins in Tyre today, visitors can see the jetties and breakwaters from the ancient island cities just off the coast of the city. The Tomb of King Hiram is also located just a few kilometers from Tyre.

• Baalbeck was an inland city, at the crossroads of the major north-south and east-west trading routes, settled by the Phoenicians as early as 2,000 BC. The Phoenicians built the first temple here, dedicated to the god Baal, the Sun God, from which the city got its name. Today, Baalbeck’s Phoenician origins have been covered and eclipsed by the great Roman temples later built on the site.

In 333 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Phoenician city-states, and ancient Phoenicia was absorbed into the Greek Empire (which covered Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East).Greek customs and the Greek language were adopted. Alexander the Great died in 323 BC (only 10 years after his conquest of the Middle East), and over 250 years of unrest and dynastic struggles followed. Greek rule in the region was finally overturned by the Roman General Pompey in 64 BC.

While there are no significant ruins from the Hellenistic period in Lebanon, one notable Greek site for history-lovers is in Tyre. While most of the Phoenician cities submitted immediately to Alexander the Great’s conquest in 333 BC, Tyre resisted in a year-long siege that destroyed much of the city. Alexander used the debris from the abandoned mainland city to build a causeway to reach the fortified island city and eventually conquer the Tyrians. Today, this causeway has been enlarged with sand to form a peninsula that connects the ancient island city to the mainland. As you walk between the major archeological sites in Tyre, you will cross this “Quarter of Sand” (Hay el-Ramel) that was once Alexander’s causeway.

For a modern-day visitor to Lebanon, it is difficult to travel more than a few kilometers in Lebanon without running into a Roman-era ruin. The country is home to some of the best-preserved and most impressive Roman sites in the world, most notably at Baalbeck and Tyre.

• Baalbeck’s impressive complex of temples and city ruins includes the Temple of Bacchus (the best-preserved temple in the Middle East) and the columns of the Temple of Jupiter (the largest Roman temple ever constructed).Under the Romans, Baalbeck, or the “City of the Sun,” was a major religious center that served as a testament to the power and wealth of the Roman Empire.



• The city of Tyre became the capital of the Roman province of Syria-Phoenicia. Roman-era highlights include the world’s largest Roman hippodrome (where chariot races were held), an enormous triumphal arch, an extensive necropolis, and the remains of Roman aqueducts.



• In Byblos, artifacts include the remains of a Roman theater, columns lining the main thoroughfare of the ancient city, and a Roman nympheum (a monumental public fountain).



• In the Central Business District of Beirut, visitors can view the remains of a large Roman bath complex and a market area,as well as the columns and foundations of large buildings.

• In Baalbeck, the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius tore down the altars of the Temple of Jupiter and built a basilica using the temple’s stones and architectural elements. The remnants of this basilica can still be seen near the stairway of the Temple.



• In Tyre, the city entered a golden era during this time period. Today, Byzantine stone mosaics line the ancient colonnaded street at the Al-Mina archaeological site. The Al-Bass site contains the remains of a Byzantine church, as well as a necropolis containing hundreds of ornate stone and marble sarcophagi from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

The Umayyad Dynasty, which flourished for 100 years (660-750 AD) in the first century after Mohammed, was the first of two dynasties of the Arab Islamic empire. The Umayyad caliphs were notable for establishing a large empire, which extended from Spain, through North Africa, to Central Asia. They established Arabic as the official language of the empire, and they are remembered for their excellent city administration and planning and their patronage of early Islamic art and architecture. Following a coup, the Umayyads were replaced by the Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258 AD), who shifted power eastward to Baghdad and imposed harsh control in Lebanon and Syria, leading to many local revolts.

Under Arab rule, the region of Lebanon became a refuge for many ethnic and religious groups. Splinter Christian groups, including the Maronites and the Melchites, settled in the Qadisha Valley and Zahlé. Islamic followers of an Egyptian caliph settled in southern Lebanon and established the Druze sect, still a major religious group in the Shouf and other areas of modern-day Lebanon. Shiite Muslims from Egypt also had increasing influence in the region during this era.

Lebanon’s cities continued to prosper as trading and industrial centers under Arab rule. However, there are few archaeological remnants of this period in Lebanon today.

• The impressive city of Aanjar is the only known remain of the 8^th century Umayyad Dynasty in Lebanon. Thought to be the summer home of Caliph Walid I, Aanjar was a major commercial center for the region and contains the remains of over 600 small shops, colonnaded boulevards, baths, and temples.

One lasting influence of the Crusades in Lebanon was the creation of renewed linkages between the Maronites and the Roman Catholics. In 1180, the Maronite church entered a formal union with the Roman Catholic Church, a union that still exists today. There are also numerous archaeological remnants (towers, castles, and churches) of the Crusades scattered along the Lebanese coast and throughout the countryside. Notable sites include:

• The Sidon Sea Castle, which sits on a small island in the harbor, connected by a stone bridge to mainland Sidon.
• The Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles, a large fortress on a hill in the center of Tripoli.
• The ruins of the stone walls and moats of a Crusader castle can be seen in the town of Enfe, south of Tripoli.
• The ruins of the Holy Cross Cathedral, an important Crusader church in Tyre.

Following the Crusades, modern-day Lebanon, Syria and Egypt came under the control of the Mamluks. The Mamluks were originally slave bodyguards (from the Caspian and Caucasus regions) for the Egyptian Ayyudib sultans. However, the Mamluks overthrew their masters and formed the Mamluk Sultanate. Many Shiite Muslims migrated to Lebanon during this period, and there were increasing religious tensions. After a number of rebellions near Beirut were crushed, the Shiites moved to settle in Southern Lebanon.

The Mamluks were defeated by the Turkish Ottomans in 1516, and the Ottomans dominated the region for the four centuries preceding World War I.