Lebanon has its roots in a very distant time between mountains covered with cedars and coasts overlooking the Mediterranean here where today there are modern cities once stood ports and sanctuaries of one of the most mysterious and fascinating people of antiquity the Phoenicians
But long before the arrival of the Phoenicians this land was already inhabited by people who cultivated the land fished along the coast and built small villages made of stone and mud between the mountains of Lebanon and the fertile Beqaa Valley Neolithic cultures developed which then transformed into increasingly organized communities
Over the centuries the first city states were born along the coast Sidon Tyre Byblos Tripoli independent cities but united by a common language and culture the heart of the Phoenician civilization was right in Lebanon and its inhabitants were known as masters of the sea skilled navigators and tireless traders
Byblos is one of the oldest cities in the world still inhabited today a sacred place where wood was traded with Egypt already in ancient times the pharaohs came here to obtain the legendary cedars of Lebanon used to build temples ships and palaces it was a city that breathed the sea and the mountains and that also became famous for writing
The Phoenicians invented one of the first phonetic alphabets in history simple and effective it was then used by the Greeks by the Latins and by many other civilizations it was an alphabet born for trade to write down goods agreements and names of kings but it ended up changing the way the world wrote
Tyre was one of the most powerful Phoenician cities a fortress island full of temples and palaces from here the ships that founded Carthage and other colonies in the western Mediterranean departed its kings were also priests and traders and the city was famous for purple a precious dye obtained from a sea shell the purple of Tyre was so rare and expensive that it became the color of the kings
Sidon another legendary city was a center of culture and craftsmanship known for glass fabrics jewels and perfumes it was an elegant city loved by the kings of Egypt and those of Assyria and Persia here cultures religions and traditions merged in an ever-living mosaic
Ancient Lebanon was also a contested land, the great empires of the past always wanted it under their control, first the Egyptians, then the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Persians, and finally Alexander the Great with his Greek army, and the Romans also did not fail to leave their mark by building temples, theaters and roads
In Baalbek, even today, you can admire the remains of one of the largest Roman temples in the world, a place that unites Semitic roots with the power of Roman architecture and that testifies to how important this land was for anyone who wanted to dominate the East
And yet, despite the conquests, the heart of ancient Lebanon remained Phoenician, tied to the sea, to ships in the wind, to letters engraved on wood and stone, a history made of journeys, exchanges, meetings of gods who arrived from the sea and of men who left the coast to found new cities
