Byblos

Panorama de Biblos.

Byblos (in Arabic, جبيل Ǧubail), also called Gibello, Gibelletto or Jebail, is a city located in Lebanon, in the north coast of the country, 30 km from Beirut. Located on a hill, it was an ancient Phoenician city, called Gubla in cuneiform texts and Gebal in the Bible. It is believed to have been founded around 5000 BC. C., and according to sources attributed to the Phoenician historian Sanjuniatón, it was built by Cronus, and was the first Phoenician city. Currently, it is widely recognized as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.

Etymology

Its etymology comes from the hill on which it was located (𐤂𐤁𐤋 Gubla, “mountain” in Phoenician) which derived its biblical name Gebal, from here to the Greek form Byblos and hence the word Biblion ('book'), origin of the terms Biblia and library. The Arabic name, Ŷubayl, is diminutive of jabal, 'mountain'.

The name Bible with which the Christian sacred book is known is attributed to this city since the first bible was made on papyrus from it.

Historical heritage

It was an active mercantile city, a market for papyrus, cedar wood and copper from the Caucasus, converted into the commercial center of the eastern Mediterranean. He maintained vassalage with the pharaohs of ancient Egypt; Later it was a tributary city of Assyrians and Persians.

From ancient Byblos, a wall from the early Bronze Age, remains of temples, a necropolis and numerous remains from Roman and medieval times have been preserved. It was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1984.

There are also some Renaissance-inspired buildings preserved as well as an immense amount of ruins from different periods.

In summer you can observe its vibrant nightlife (compared to the best in the Mediterranean); when night falls what used to be an old market becomes a street full of pubs and life.

The Archaeological Site of Byblos

The King's Fountain.

• La Source of the King or Ain el-Malik, which in ancient times supplied the city with water, is in a cavity of about 20 m depth accessible by spiral staircases. According to the version of Plutarco of the myth of Osiris, the servants of the king of Biblos coincided with Isis around the stairs of the spring and took her to the royal palace, where she found the body of her husband Osiris embedded in one of the pillars of the palace.

• The L-shaped Temple, so called by its form, was erected around 2700 a. C.

The Temple of the Obelisks.

• The Temple of the Obelisks, built between 1600 and 1200 BC, at the top of the "L-shaped time", was moved by archaeologists to their current location. The many little obelisks found in this temple were religious offerings. In the subsoil of the temple there have been found a lot of human statuettes made of gold-covered bronze, now displayed in the National Museum of Beirut.

• In the necropolis of the site, which dates from the second millennium to C., sarcophagus of the kings of Biblos have been found, among others the sarcophagus of King Ahiram.

• A Roman theatre, built around 218 AD.

Places of interest

• Museum Time Memory
• Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
• Wax Museum
• Museum of the Orphans of the Armenian Genocide "Aram Bezikian"
• Church of St. John the Baptist, of the period of the first crusaders