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Sidon, on the
coast 48 kilometers south of Beirut, is one of the Famous
names in ancient history. But of all of Lebanon's cities
this is the most mysterious, for its past has been
tragically scattered and plundered.
In the 19th century, treasure hunters and amateur
archaeologists made off with many of its most beautiful and
important objects, some of which can now be seen in foreign
museums.
In this century too, ancient objects from Sidon (Saidoon
is the Phoenician name, Saida in Arabic), have turned up on
the world's antiquities markets.
Other traces of its history lie beneath the concrete of
modern constructions, perhaps buried forever.
The challenge for today's visitor to Sidon then is to
recapture a sense of this city's ancient glory from the
intriguing elements that still survive.
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Sidon's
Sea Castle |
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The largest
city in south Lebanon, Sidon is a busy commercial center
with the pleasant, conservative atmosphere of a small town.
Since Persian times this was known as the city of gardens
and even today it is surrounded by citrus and banana
plantations.
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A long and
glorious history
There is evidence that Sidon was inhabited as long
ago as 4000 B.C., and perhaps as early as Neolithic times
(6000 - 4000 B.C.). The ancient city was built on a
promontory facing an island, which sheltered its fleet from
storms and served as a refuge during military incursions
from the interior. In its wealth, commercial initiative, and
religious significance, Sidon is said to have surpassed all
other Phoenician city states.
Sidon's Phoenician period began in the 12th - 10th
century B.C. and reached its height during the Persian
Empire (550 - 330 B.C.). The city provided Persia, a great
land power, with the ships and seamen to fight the
Egyptians and the Greek, a role that gave it a highly
favored position. The Persians maintained a royal park in
Sidon and it was during this time that the temple of Eshmoun
was built.
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Glass
manufacture, Sidon's most important enterprise in the
Phoenician era, was conducted on a vast scale and the
production of purple dye was almost as important. The small
shell of the Murex trunculus was broken in order to extract
the pigment that was so rare it became the mark of royalty.
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Like other
Phoenician city states, Sidon suffered from a succession of
conquerors.
At the end of the Persian era in 351 B.C., unable to resist
the superior forces of Artaxerxes III, the desperate
Sidonians locked their gates and set fire to their city
rather than to submit to the invader. More than 40,000 died
in the conflagration.
After the disaster the city was too weak to oppose the
triumphal march of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. It sued
for peace and the Hellenistic age of Sidon began.
Under the successors of Alexander, Sidon, the "holy city" of
Phoenicia, enjoyed relative freedom and organized games and
competitions in which the greatest athletes of the region
participated.
When Sidon, like the other cities of Phoenicia, fell under
Roman domination, it continued to mint its own silver coins.
The Romans also built a theater and other major monuments in
the city. During the Byzantine period when the great
earthquake of 551 A.D. destroyed most of the cities of
Phoenicia, Beirut's school of Law took refuge in Sidon. The
town continued quietly for the next century, until it was
conquered by the Moslems in 636. |
In 1111 Sidon
was besieged and stormed by the Crusader Baldwin, who was
soon to become King of Jerusalem. Under Frankish rule, the
city became the chief town of the Seigniory of Sagette and
the second and the four baronies of the Kingdom of
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin in 1187, but it was
re-occupied for a hundred years when the Crusader Templars
recaptured it briefly. They abandoned it for good in 1291,
after the fall of Acre to the Mamluke forces.
In the 15th century, Sidon was one of the ports of Damascus
and it flourished once more during the 17th century when it
was rebuilt by Fakhreddine II, then ruler of Lebanon. Under
his protection and encouragement, French merchants set up
profitable business enterprises in Sidon for trade between
France and Syria. By the beginning of the 19th century,
however , Sidon was relatively obscure and remained so until
the mid-20th century when it developed into an important
commercial and agricultural center. |
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Archaelogical Excavations
Early French excavations led by Ernest Renan in the late
19th century uncovered the large necropolis of Magharat
Abloun outside the city. The royal necropoli at nearby Ayaa
and Ain el-Helwe were found shortly thereafter.
In 1937 Middle Bronze Age tombs were opened in several
mountain villages overlooking Sidon and at this time a
number of archaeological surveys were conducted in and
around the city. |
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Sidon's Seaside Resthouse |
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Sidon
Today
The entrance to Sidon from the north is on a wide
divided highway lined with palm trees. As you approach,
the landmark Crusader Sea Castle and modern port
installations are immediately visible. The busy main
street is full of small shops of every kind, including
patisseries, whose oriental delicacies are stacked in
little pyramids.
Sidon is famous for a variety of local sweets which you
can watch being made in the old souk or in shops on the
main street. |
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The
particular specialty of Sidon is known as "senioura," a
delicious crumbly cookie.
A growing city with a modern seaport, Sidon is the
South's commercial and financial center. In prewar days
it was a terminal and a refinery for Tapline, and now
its huge storage tanks are used for the import and local
distribution of fuel. The commercial port, the third
largest in Lebanon, accommodates small freighters. Sidon
is also the seat of government for South Lebanon.
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Visiting
the Sites: |
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The old
section of modern Sidon developed at the end of the
Crusader period. Here the visitor will enjoy wandering
along the sea front to the Crusader Sea Castle, and
looking around the old souks, “khans” (caravansaries)
and other medieval remnants. |
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1-
The Sea Castle
Is a fortress built by the Crusaders in the early 13th
century on a small island connected to the mainland by a
causeway. A climb to the top leads to the roof where there
is a good view of the port and the old part of the city.
Today the castle consists primarily of two towers connected
by a wall. In the outer walls Roman columns were used as
horizontal reinforcements, a feature often seen in
fortifications built on or near former Roman sites. The west
tower is the better preserved of the two. Old prints of the
fortress show it to be one of great beauty, but little
remains of the embellishments that once decorated its
ramparts. After the fall of Acre to the Mamlukes all the sea
castles were destroyed to prevent the Crusaders from
re-establishing footholds on the coast. |
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"The Old
Souks |
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2- A
government Resthouse on the waterfront next to the
castle offers good food and refreshment. Situated in a
restored medieval building, the Resthouse is set in a
landscaped seaside terrace.
The interior has vaulted ceilings and medieval decor. There
is also a fine patio with a fountain. Open from noon until 4
PM and from 7 PM -12 PM. |
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3 - The
Souks
Between the Sea Castle and the Castle of
St. Louis stretches the old town. Not far from the Sea
Castle is the picturesque vaulted souk of Sidon, where
workmen still ply their trades.
On the edge of the souk is a traditional coffee house where
male clientele meet to smoke the narguileh (water pipe) and
drink Turkish coffee. Fishermen sell their latest catch at
the market near the port not far from the souk's entrance. |
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4 - Khan El
Franj
The Khan El Franj is one of the many khans or caravansaries
built by Fakhreddine II for merchants and goods. This is a
typical khan with a large rectangular courtyard and a
central fountain surrounded by covered galleries.
The center of economic activity for the city in the 19th
century, the khan also housed the French consulate. Today it
is being renovated to serve as Sidon's cultural center. |
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5 - The
Great Mosque
South of the souk on the way to the Castle of St. Louis,
is the Great Mosque, formerly the Church of St. John of
the Hospitalers. The four walls of this rectangular
building (recently restored to their natural beauty)
date to the 13th century.
Originally a fortress-like Crusader compound with its
own chapel, it is still an imposing structure,
especially viewed from the seaside. |
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The
Great Mosque Today |
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6- Qalaat
El Muizz or The Castle of St. Louis
The Castle of St. Louis was erected on the emplacement of a
Fatimid fortress during the Crusade led by French King Louis
IX, popularly known as St. Louis.
Built in the mid-13th century, the present state of the
castle makes it easy to observe various stages of the
restoration carried out in the Mamluke era, particularly
work done in the 17th century by Emir Fakhreddine II. At the
foot of the hill are a dozen or so Roman columns scattered
on the ground. |
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7- Murex
Hill
To the south of the citadel is a mound of debris called
Murex Hill. This artificial hill (100 meters long and 50
meters high) was formed by the accumulation of refuse from
the purple dye factories of Phoenician times. Mosaic tiling
found at the top of the mound suggests that Roman buildings
were erected there. The hill today is covered by houses and
buildings as well as a cemetery.
Broken murex shells can still be seen on the lower part of
the hill, but because of extensive construction, it is
increasingly inaccessible to the public.
8- Old
Ports
The ancient Egyptian Port, so called because it faced south
towards Egypt, is located opposite the Castle of St. Louis
and Murex Hill. An active harbor in Phoenician times, it has
silted up over the centuries. Today the north channel harbor
is used only for local fishing boats because Fakhreddine
filled it in during the 17th century to deny entry to the
Turkish fleet. What remains of this harbor goes back to the
Roman era. |
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The
Necropoli of Sidon.
The three main necropoli of Sidon lie beyond the ancient
city limits and were in use until the late Roman and early
Christian eras. These are the necropolis of Magharat Abloun,
the royal necropolis of Ayaa below the present village of
Helalie, and the necropolis of Ain el Helwe to the
southeast. Located in what are now residential areas, no
excavations are in progress at any of these sites.
South of the city an ancient cemetery known as Dekerman was
used until this century. It is also an archaeological site,
with an extensive collection of objects, mostly sarcophagi
and tombs in situ, as well as fragments, inscriptions and
sculptures.
A number of circular Chalcolithic (4000 B.C.) foundations
can also be seen here.
If You Have
Time...
The Temple of Eshmoun.
At the right of the bridge on the Awali River just before
reaching Sidon, is a spot known as "Bustan el Sheikh," site
of the Temple of Eshmoun. This important monument goes back
to the Persian period (6th century B.C.) when Sidon was at
its zenith.
As the god of healing, Eshmoun was identified with Asklepios,
the mythical Greek god of medical arts. Each Phoenician city
state had its own gods, and Eshmoun was one of the favorite
of Sidon during its golden age, the 6th and the 5th
centuries B.C. Additions were made to the temple in
subsequent eras and it remained a sacred shrine and place of
pilgrimage well into the first centuries A.D. |
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If you have
time
Out of old Byblos and into the town's higher elevations in
the foothills are a number of very old churches such as the
catacomb-like Mar Nohra cut from rock and the Mar Semaan
chapel.
Just north of Byblos, Amchit sits on the coast and
climbs briefly up the lower elevations of Mt. Lebanon. This
town has the country's only organized campsite, a pleasant,
clean place with attractive beaches available to campers.
The town is well known for its lovely traditional houses.
Among others, there is the home of the French writer Ernest
Renan who lived in Amchit in the 19th century. |
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Nahr
Ibrahim, 6 kilometers south of Byblos. This valley of
the ancient Adonis River is one of the most wild and
beautiful in Lebanon. The road leads to the source at
Afqa high in the mountains, where you will find the
ruins of the great temple of Aphrodite-Venus in front of the
cave. |
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