Byblos

Byblos (bĭb`ləs), ancient city, Phoenicia, a port 17 mi (27 km) NNE of modern Beirut, Lebanon. The principal city of Phoenicia during the 2d millennium B.C., it long retained importance as an active port under the Persians. Byblos was the chief center of the worship of Adonis. Because of its papyruses, it was also the source of the Greek word for book and, hence, of the name of the Bible. Excavations of Byblos, especially since 1922, have shown that trade existed between Byblos and Egypt as early as c.2800 B.C. A syllabic script found at Byblos dates from the 18th to the 15th cent. B.C.

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Byblos

 modern Jbail or Jubayl

Ancient coastal city, eastern Mediterranean Sea. Located north of Beirut, Leb., the site was occupied by at least the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age); extensive settlement developed during the 4th millennium BC. As the chief harbour for the export of cedar to Egypt, it was a great trading centre. Papyrus, an early writing surface produced in Egypt, received its original Greek name, byblos, from its export to the Aegean through the city; the English word Bible means essentially “the (papyrus) book.” Almost all known early Phoenician inscriptions, most from the 10th century BC, come from Byblos. By that time Tyre had become the preeminent city in Phoenicia, and, though Byblos continued to flourish into Roman times, it never recovered its former supremacy. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.