Byblos

Byblos (ˈbɪblɒs ; Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl (Jubayl, locally Jbeil ʒbeːl; 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably Gebal), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000 BC and continuously inhabited since 5000 BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. During its history, Byblos was part of numerous civilizations, including Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Fatimid, Genoese, Mamluk and Ottoman. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was in ancient Byblos that the Phoenician alphabet, likely the ancestor of the Greek, Latin and all other Western alphabets, was developed. Eusebius' Onomasticon stated that Byblos was known in Hebrew as Gabel / Gobel. The name appears as Kebny in Egyptian hieroglyphic records going back to the 4th-dynasty pharaoh Sneferu (2600 BC) and as Gubla (𒁺𒆷) in the Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters to the 18th-dynasty pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV. In the 1st millennium BC, its name appeared in Phoenician and Punic inscriptions as Gebal (𐤂𐤁𐤋, ); in the Hebrew Bible as Geval (גבל); and in Syriac as (ܓܒܠ). The name seems to derive from (𐤂𐤁, "well") and (𐤀𐤋, "god"), the latter a word that could variously refer to any of the Canaanite gods or to their leader in particular. The name thus seems to have meant the "Well of the God" or "Source of the God". Its present Arabic name Jubayl (جبيل) or J(e)beil is a direct descendant of these earlier names, although apparently modified by a misunderstanding of the name as the triliteral root or , meaning "mountain". All of these, along with Byblos, are etymologically related. During the Crusades, this name appeared in European records as Gibelet or Giblet. This name was used for Byblos Castle and its associated lordship. The Phoenician city, known to the Greeks as Býblos (Βύβλος) and to the Romans as Byblus, was important for their import of papyrus from Egypt – to the extent that "byblos" came to mean "papyrus" in Greek.