Seven thousand years of continuous occupation in one mound, a Crusader castle on top, and a fishing harbour to eat in.
Byblos — Arabic Jbeil, Phoenician Gebal — has a reasonable claim to being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, with settlement from around 5000 BC and probably earlier.
It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is 37 kilometres north of Beirut, and it is the easiest good day trip in Lebanon.
The name
The Greeks called it Byblos because it was the port through which papyrus from Egypt reached the Aegean.
From that Greek name for the city comes biblion, a book, and from biblion comes the Bible and every word in European languages beginning biblio-.
The city also gave the world something more consequential: the Phoenician alphabet, whose earliest substantial inscription is on the Ahiram sarcophagus found here and now in the National Museum in Beirut. Every alphabetic script in use today descends from it.
The site
A single tell — an artificial mound formed by seven thousand years of building on the ruins of the previous city — excavated principally by Maurice Dunand from 1925.
Walking it, you pass through, in rough order:
Neolithic and Chalcolithic house foundations and burial jars.
The Temple of Baalat Gebal, the Lady of Byblos, from the third millennium BC, rebuilt repeatedly.
The L-shaped Temple and the Temple of the Obelisks, from around 1900 BC — a courtyard of standing stone obelisks, and the most striking thing on the site.
The royal necropolis, nine shaft tombs cut into the rock, from which the Ahiram sarcophagus came.
Persian, Hellenistic and Roman remains, including a small Roman theatre re-erected above the sea.
The Crusader castle, built by the Franks in the twelfth century out of blocks quarried from the Roman buildings — you can see Roman column drums used as horizontal bonding stones in the walls. Climb it for the view over the whole tell and the sea.
The town
The harbour — a small Phoenician port still in use, with fishing boats and a row of restaurants around it. The fish is good and it is priced for visitors.
The old souk, restored, with craft and souvenir shops. Attractive, and touristic.
The Church of Saint John the Baptist, a Crusader church of 1115 with an unusual open-air baptistery on the side.
The Wax Museum and the Fossil Museum, both small and both more interesting than they sound — the fossil one sells and displays the Cretaceous fish from Hjoula and Haqel that are also at the MIM museum.
Getting there
Service taxi or bus from the Charles Helou station in Beirut, about an hour depending on traffic on the coastal road, and very cheap. Ask for Jbeil.
Taxi for the day is more comfortable and much more expensive; agree the price and the waiting time in advance.
Practical
The site charges and is inexpensive. Closes in the late afternoon and earlier in winter.
No shade. Hat, water, and go in the morning.
Combine it with Harissa — the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine above Jounieh, reached by a cable car with a spectacular view over the bay — which is on the way back.
Jeita Grotto, an enormous limestone cave system with an upper gallery and a boat trip on an underground river, is also on this road. It is genuinely one of the best caves in the world; check whether it is open, as it has closed for extended periods.
