Lebanon has a heritage that goes back in recorded history to around 3000 B.C. Its geographic location on the Mediterranean Sea gave it importance as a trading and commercial center. The tradition began with the Phoenicians and continued through many centuries, remaining almost unaffected by foreign rule and other calamities.

At different periods of its history, Lebanon has come under the domination of foreign rulers, including Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, and French. Although often conquered, the Lebanese take pride in their rebellions against despotic and repressive rulers. Lebanon's mountainous terrain has provided it with a certain protective isolation, enabling it to survive with an identity all its own.

The name Phoenicia comes form the Greek word “phoinikies”, a purple dye produced from the murex shell.

The Phoenicians are descended from the early Canaanites who inhabited the coast of Lebanon and the Sea People who invaded Lebanon about l200 B.C. The early Canaanites had a limited ship building technology, sailing only flat bottomed barges close to shore. The invading Sea People introduced a much more sophisticated shipbuilding craft. The Phoenicians appeared in history with an established maritime tradition and the technology to build ships with a keeled hull. This allowed them to sail the open seas, and to develop a flourishing sea trade.

They established trading colonies on rocky promontories which provided natural protected harbors on most of the Mediterranean shore. Tyre, Sidon in Lebanon and Carthage, now in Tunisia, are their most famous cities. Each of the coastal cities was an independent kingdom noted for the special activities of its inhabitants. Tyre and Sidon were important maritime and trade centers; Byblos and Berytus (Beirut) were trade and religious centers.

Among the items the Phoenicians exported were cedar, pine, fine linen, embroideries, metalwork, glass, wine, salt and dried fish. They imported papyrus for paper, ivory, ebony, silk, amber, ostrich eggs, spices, incense, horses, gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and jewels. Cedar was very important and much prized. Byblos was the first Phoenician city to trade actively with Egypt and the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C.), exporting cedar, olive oil, and wine, while importing gold and other products from the Nile Valley. The Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamen had artifacts in his tomb made of Phoenician cedar, and King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem was built of cedar.

As merchants, the Phoenicians needed a simple alphabet to keep track of their commerce. They therefore replaced the cumbersome cuneiform alphabet of 550 characters with a phonetic alphabet based on distinct sounds and consisting of 22 letters.

They left few if any written records. Much of what we know of them was recorded by Greek and Roman historians who mentioned their seamanship and commercial enterprises.

Excavations in the 1900s revealed a series of semi-intact royal tombs in Byblos that gave a glimpse of Phoenician treasure, including vessels of gold, silver, and obsidian, sandals and breastplates of gold, and an array of royal paraphernalia. The most important find was made in 1922, when an inscription in the Phoenician alphabet on an elaborate sarcophagus in Byblos was discovered: "This coffin was made by Ithobaal, the son of Ahiram, King of Byplos, as the eternal resting place for his father. If any ruler or governor or general attacks Byblos and touches this coffin, his sceptre will be broken...."

The primary god of the Phoenicians was El, protector of the universe, but often called Baal. The son Melkart symbolized the annual cycle of vegetation and was associated with the female deity Astarte in her role as the maternal goddess. She was called Asherar-yam, our lady of the sea, and in Byblos she was Baalat, our dear lady. Astarte was linked with goddesses of neighboring Greek and Persian cultures in her role as combined heavenly mother and earth mother. The Phoenician triad of Baal, Melkart and Astarte eventually took on the look of Greek deities.

During the years of their prosperity, the Phoenician invention of the alphabet facilitated communications and trade. They excelled in producing textiles and in carving ivory, in working with metal, and above all in making glass. The craft of glass making was raised to a fine art by Phoenician artisans, and they may have been the first to develop blown glass. Their terra cotta vessels and pots often show a thoughtful refinement of shape, as do their votive statues.

The Phoenicians reached the peak of their culture around l, 000 B.C, by which time they had established trading colonies in Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Africa and Spain. Their ships circumnavigated Africa a thousand years before those of the Portuguese.

Carthage was founded about 800 B.C. It continued to flourish, mining iron and precious metals from Iberia, and using its considerable naval power and mercenary armies to protect its commercial interests until it was finally destroyed by Rome around 149 BC at the end of the Punic Wars. The great city states of Phoenicia ended with the fall of Tyre to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 573 B.C. The glory of the Phoenicians began to decline, and in 332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Tyre, and the remnants of the Phoenician culture were swept into the Hellenistic empire.