DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0081
THE PHOENICIAN PLAIN.
57
memories behind it. Egypt and Assyria may carry us many centuries farther still, but what is
their direct connection with us when compared with Phoenicia ? That strange and mysterious
people, where are they ? What descendants have they left ? Where can we trace them ?
They were scarcely of the land. Like some fowl of the sea, which never touches shore or visits
the land, save to rear its young, the
Phoenician asked no territory, con-
quered no nations, yet was found on
every coast. These original settle-
ments of Tyre and Sidon, what are
they ? Along that straight, mono-
tonous, havenless Syrian coast, the
very last we should have imagined to
have fostered a spirit of commerce
and enterprise, here and there in
front of some sandspits, or at the foot
of some headland, there rises from
the water a ridge of reefs, or a rocky
islet. Like some sea-swallow, the
Phoenician seized on this. There he
made his perch, and took breath for
a while between his adventurous
voyages. Such rocky islets or head-
lands are Tyre (see above), Sidon
To MP of Hi RAX.-
KABR HIRAM.
(see page 45), BerytUS, Gebal, BotryS, And the neighbouring village of Hanawieh, with a view of the peninsula of Tyre as
it appears from this spot.
Tripolis, and Aradus [the modern
Beirut (see pages 28 and 41), Jebeil, Batrun, Tarabalus (see pages 5 and 9), and Ruad], most
of them very similar in position, and three of them—Jebeil, Batrun, and Tarabalus, in their
little reef of rocks fronting and parallel to the headland, close reproductions of the site of
Tyre. Tyre, though historically the daughter of Sidon, soon became the leading city of the
57
memories behind it. Egypt and Assyria may carry us many centuries farther still, but what is
their direct connection with us when compared with Phoenicia ? That strange and mysterious
people, where are they ? What descendants have they left ? Where can we trace them ?
They were scarcely of the land. Like some fowl of the sea, which never touches shore or visits
the land, save to rear its young, the
Phoenician asked no territory, con-
quered no nations, yet was found on
every coast. These original settle-
ments of Tyre and Sidon, what are
they ? Along that straight, mono-
tonous, havenless Syrian coast, the
very last we should have imagined to
have fostered a spirit of commerce
and enterprise, here and there in
front of some sandspits, or at the foot
of some headland, there rises from
the water a ridge of reefs, or a rocky
islet. Like some sea-swallow, the
Phoenician seized on this. There he
made his perch, and took breath for
a while between his adventurous
voyages. Such rocky islets or head-
lands are Tyre (see above), Sidon
To MP of Hi RAX.-
KABR HIRAM.
(see page 45), BerytUS, Gebal, BotryS, And the neighbouring village of Hanawieh, with a view of the peninsula of Tyre as
it appears from this spot.
Tripolis, and Aradus [the modern
Beirut (see pages 28 and 41), Jebeil, Batrun, Tarabalus (see pages 5 and 9), and Ruad], most
of them very similar in position, and three of them—Jebeil, Batrun, and Tarabalus, in their
little reef of rocks fronting and parallel to the headland, close reproductions of the site of
Tyre. Tyre, though historically the daughter of Sidon, soon became the leading city of the