Byblos

The name originated from “biblion”, that is book. The word “bible” is derived from the Greek “ta b blia”, which means “the books”.

Byblos is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Under the domination of the Pharaohs in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, Byblos was the commercial and religions capital of the Phoenician coast. It was there that the first linear alphabet, ancestor of all modern alphabets was invented. In Crusader times Byblos was integrated to the county of Tripoli. The four main places of interest to visit in Byblos are the Castle, built by the Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries: The Egyptian temples, the earliest of which dates back to the 4th millenium: the Phoenician royal necropolis, and the Roman amphitheater.