✦ The Ancient Atlas

Byblos (Jbeil)

City / RuinsMiddle East

Ancient Phoenician port city on the Lebanese coast, 40 km north of Beirut. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world : pottery evidence places occupation at the site as far back as approximately 8,800 BCE, with substantial Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age strata preserved in superposition. The Phoenician name 'Gubla' is the source of the Greek 'Biblos' (book) — the city was the primary source of papyrus reaching Greece. The site preserves Phoenician megalithic temple foundations and Roman colonnade, and includes a series of cut-stone royal tombs whose entry shafts and chamber precision have drawn independent investigator attention as candidates for an earlier substrate. UNESCO World Heritage Site.

34.1232°, 35.6519°

Look Closer — this site carries open questions: polygonal, interlocking masonry; dating rests on thin stratigraphic evidence; stones heavier than the period's tools could lift.
Open in the Atlas map →

Walkthrough videos (1)

Lost Ancient High Technology Evidence At Byblos In LebanonLost Ancient High Technology Evidence At Byblos In LebanonBrien Foerster

Nearby sites