Byblos figures on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites…and for a good reason. Extensive archaeological investigations, begun in 1921, indicate that Byblos is one of the eastern Mediterranean cities that claim to have been continuously inhabited longer than any other city in the world, with remains of civilizations dating from about 5000B.C.

According to Phoenician tradition it was founded by the god El, and even the Phoenicians considered it a city of great antiquity. Although its beginnings are lost in time, modern scholars say the site of Byblos goes back at least 7,000 years.

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