In the centuries following 1200 BC, the Phoenicians formed the major naval and trading power of the region. Perhaps it was through these merchants that the Hebrew word kena'ani ('Canaanite') came to have the secondary, and apt, meaning of "merchant". The Greek term "Tyrian purple" describes the dye they were especially famous for, and their port town Tyre. Phoenician trade was founded on this violet-purple dye derived from the Murex sea-snail's shell, once profusely available in coastal waters but exploited to local extinction. James ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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See main articles: Phoenician language, Phoenician alphabet, Alphabet. Though the Phoenicians are credited with developing the Phoenician alphabet, their alphabet is actually what is termed an abjad (different from an alphabet, in that it contains no vowels). The Phoenician abjad, first making its appearance in the 11th century BC, evolved out of the proto-Canaanite abjad, that originated around the 17th century BC. A cuneiform abjad originated to the north in Ugarit, a Canaanite city of northern Syr ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon, between the Lebanon Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Ph ...

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Phoenicia - Origins Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire Phoenicia - Phoenician trade Phoenicia - Decline Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies Phoenicia - Language and literature
Phoenicia - External links
Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon, between the Lebanon Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Ph ...

Including:

Phoenicia - Origins Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire Phoenicia - Phoenician trade Phoenicia - Decline Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies Phoenicia - Language and literature Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Urville fictional city - Antiquity. In the 12th century B.C., Qart-Sous-Yam, "Sea Horse City", (in Latin, Carsutia, and in English Carsoucia) is founded by the Phoenicians. From the 7th century to 125 BC, the Carsoucia province is fighting with Carthage for the control of trade between the Western Mediterranean and Tyr and Sydon in Phoenicia. During this war, Carthage takes advantage over the Carsoucia, but it's a ...

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Urville fictional city, Urville fictional city - Urville history, Urville fictional city - Antiquity, Urville fictional city - Middle Ages, Urville fictional city - Ancient Regime, Urville fictional city - Contemporary history, Urville fictional city - 1945 to Present, Urville fictional city - External link

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See also: Phoenicia Lebanon is the historic home of the Phoenicians, Semitic traders whose maritime culture flourished there for more than 2,000 years (c. 2700–450 BC). Ancient ruins in Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Beirut show a civilized nation, with urban centres and sophisticated arts. Present-day Lebanon was a centre for many nations and cultures. Its people roamed the Mediterranean seas, skilled in trade and in art. They were also the creators of the oldest known 24-letter alphabet, a shortening of ...

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History of Lebanon, History of Lebanon - Ancient history of Lebanon, History of Lebanon - 19th Century, History of Lebanon - The rise and fall of Emir Bashir II, History of Lebanon - Sectarian conflict: European Powers begin to intervene, History of Lebanon - Rising prosperity and peace, History of Lebanon - League of Nations Mandate, History of Lebanon - Independence, History of Lebanon - Regional Conflict, History of Lebanon - The Lebanese Civil War: 1975–1990, History of Lebanon - Initial outbreak 1975–76 and Syrian intervention, History of Lebanon - PLO and Israeli conflict Israeli intervention 1976–82, History of Lebanon - Israeli invasion and international intervention: 1982–84, History of Lebanon - Worsening conflict and political crisis: 1985–89, History of Lebanon - End of the Civil War: 1989–91, History of Lebanon - Postwar reconstruction: 1992 to Present, History of Lebanon - Continued Syrian military presence, History of Lebanon - 2004 Amendments to the Constitution, History of Lebanon - Assassination of Hariri 2005, History of Lebanon - Withdrawal of Syrian troops, History of Lebanon - Amnesty for Samir Geagea, History of Lebanon - Hariri Assassination Investigations, History of Lebanon - Border Tension

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Phoenicians The ancient people who occupied the strip of seaboard on the west of Palestine, with Tyre and Sidon as principal towns; noted among other things for their great development in trade, commerce, and navigation. The Phoenicians themselves, and the their neighbors the Israelites, called their land Canaan (Khena`an). According to Herodotus (2:44) Tyre was founded about 2300 years before his time, or 2756 BC.

The ancient deities of Phoenicia and their religion, as with other ancient peoples, was connected spiritually and physically with the great powers and processes of universal nature; indeed so far did this go that each river, spring, headland, etc., was under the influence of a deity; yet undoubtedly beyond and above all these hierarchical divisions there was always the ineffable, unthinkable, eternal, intelligence-life.

As time went on certain deities became more prominent in theological thought and speculation, acquiring celestial attributes as well as earthly ones, such as Ba`al, Astarte (made equivalent to Isis by Plutarch), and the Tyrian Melqarth (associated with Herakles). Originally each masculine deity had the title Ba`al ("lord," equivalent to Babylonian Bel), and the feminine deities had the title of 'Amma (mother), just as the ancient Hebrews spoke of their 'em or 'ammah (fountain, beginning, womb, mother).

The gods were called 'elomim or 'elim, from the original Shemetic root 'el. The god of the moon was Sin, the deity of the flame or lightning was Resh Reshuf and Eshmun was the god of vital force or healing (worshiped especially at Sidon) -- clearly 'Eshmun is from the Shemitic verbal root 'esh (fire, cosmic fire or vitality) -- cosmic vital electricity or fohat. Blavatsky states that the Phoenicians also propitiated the kabeiroi, deities of Samothrace.

(See also: Phoenicians, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Herodotus's account (written c. 440 BC) refers to a faint memory from 1000 years earlier, and so may be subject to question (History, I:1): "According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began to quarrel. This people, who had formerly reached the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean from an unknown origin and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Fernand Braudel remarked (in The Perspective of the World) that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and seapower is usually placed ca 1200 – 800 BC. Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Aradus and Berytus all appear in the Amarna tablets; and indeed, the first appearance in archaeology of cultural elements clearly identifiable with the Phoenician ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Please remove this notice after the article has been expanded. Details are on this talk page or at Wikipedia:Requests for expansion. Phoenicia accepted rule by the Persians. Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 538 BC. Phoenician influence declined and later the culture that they were known for disappeared entirely in the motherland. However, its North African offspring, Carthage, continued to flourish until it was destroyed by Rome ca. 149 BC, and it is also reasonable to suppose that much of the Lebanese population ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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Information on Phoenician cities and their hinterlands under the Achaemenid Persians is sparse. The famous event is the revolt of Sidon against Achaemenid rule in 345 BC and its destruction, dramatically (perhaps too dramatically) described by Diodorus Siculus. The arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 – 332 BC is the main turning point, for Hellenistic Phoenicia lost its influential mercantile role, and the distinctive culture of its cities was Hellenized under Alexander and his Macedonian successors. The responses of the individua ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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In the Old Testament there is no reference to the Greek term Phoenicia; instead, the inhabitants of the coastal are identified by their city of origin, most often as Sidonians (Gen. x. 15; Judges iii. 3; x. 6, xviii. 7; I Kings v. 20, xvi. 31). Early relations between Israelites and the Canaanites were cordial: Hiram of Tyre a Phoenician, by modern assessment, furnished architects, workmen and cedar ti ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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From the 10th century BC, their expansive culture established cities and colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Canaanite deities like Baal and Astarte were being worshipped from Cyprus to Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, and most notably at Carthage in modern Tunisia. In the Phoenician homeland: Arka Arwad Batroun Berut (Greek Βηρυτος; Latin Berytus; Arabic بيروت; English Beirut) Byblos Safita ...

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Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Origins, Phoenicia - The cultural and economic empire, Phoenicia - Phoenician trade, Phoenicia - Decline, Phoenicia - Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia, Phoenicia - Important Phoenician cities and colonies, Phoenicia - Language and literature, Phoenicia - External links, Phoenicia - Phoenicians in the Bible

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