a. Prehistory
Since the Paleolithic age, the human being living on the Lebanese land, has gone through the different steps of the prehistoric life. In the Mousterian Age, around fifty thousand years ago, he took refuge in caves; later on, in the Neolithic period, he founded boroughs of which we can state the hill of Byblos. Individuals, living on this land, kept, as early as the VIth and Vth millennial, a rich material that competes with Jericho's.

History starts with the end of the IVth, or the beginning of the IIIrd millennial, with the arrival of the Canaanites, the ancestors of the Phoenicians.

In the Neolithic, age the Asiatics a people coming from the steppes of northern Asia, surged down the region and formed the Sumerians, the Hussites, and perhaps, a part of them the pre Phoenicians of the Lebanon.

b. The Canaanites - Phoenicians
The Canaanites settled on the coast, from the mount of the Oronte up till Mount Carmel. They were better known under the name of the Phoenicians. These people skilled in contrading, in agriculture, and in metal work had internal and external communication problems, so they aimed towards the sea.

The Canaanites founded, on the littoral, a number of harbors (foundation of Tyre, after Herodotus, in 750 B.C), that became autonomous, rival and rich (Ougarit, Rouad Island, Tripoli, Batroun, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Cesarie, Askalon, and Jericho...).


c. Phoenicians and Egyptians
Since the middle of the third millennial, the Phoenicians set up commercial relations with Egypt that lasted up till the beginning of the second millennial, and reached their acme between 1991-1786 BC

After the Hyksos occupied Egypt (end of XVIII century B,C.), the Egypt-Phoenician relationships put on a new face. The Egyptians set in the middle of the XVI century BC their protectorate upon the Phoenician citiesthat became the vassals of the Egyptian King in the middle of the XV century B.C.

During that period, the Phoenician alphabet was made up of 22 signs, and was carved on King Ahiram's sarcophagus. Thus, Phoenicia spread its culture around the Mediterranean (legend of Europe and of her brother Cadmos who taught the Greeks the Phoenician alphabet).

d. The golden age of the Phoenicians
At the beginning of the VIIth century, B.C., the Phoenician cities freed themselves from Egypt's tutelage. Under the control of Tyre, the Phoenicians witnessed the golden age of their commerce. Their commercial counters spread on both sides of the Mediterranean, and were slowly transformed into colonies. In 1100 they established themselves at Gadir, Laroche, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, then founded Utic in Tunisia. Thanks to this expansion, the Phoenician arts and crafts, specially the purple industry (in Greek phoenix, after which the Phoenicians were dubbed), thrived.


e. The Domination of Mesopotamia
In the middle of the IXth century B.C., Assyria thought of the Lebanon as an outlet on the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians submitted themselves. But an atmosphere of oppression prevailed and led, in 814 B.C., a part of the population of Tyre, under the control of the royal pricess Didon (Elissa), to flee to the coasts of Tunisia. There she founded Cartage (Qarat Hadash) in other words "the new village". Thus, a new Phoenician Empire (Punic Empire) was born in the West and replaced that of the East. After the Assyrians, the Phoenicians succumbed to the power; however, they kept their reputations of sailors even with the politico-military upsurges. Pharaoh Nekao (609 - 594) entrusted them with the Egyptian fleet which they had to take on a sea voyage. This expedition was the first in history; it led the Phoenician sailors from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean after they passed by Hercules' columns.

Finally, the conquest of Alexander in 333, after Tyre's heroic resistance, put an end to the maritime power of Phoenicia in the East.

With the death of Alexander, Phoenicia became the stage of the conflict that was going on between its successors: the Seleucides and the Lagides, without stopping the Hellenization of the country.

f. The Roman peace
In 64 B.C., the country fell under the blow of Pompeii, so the "Roman Peace" bear fruit. The lost economic prosperity flourished again, the harbors prospered again, and Beirut became the military and commercial metropolitan of the Romans in the East. A new city was built according to the Roman concept. Byblos and Heliopolis (Baalbek) became famous for their temples, Tyre became known as a philosophical study center, and Beirut for its school of law.

Christianity spread as from the beginning of the first Christian century. Phoenicia became famous with its Christian martyrs before the edict of Milan was issued in 313.

When the Roman Empire divided up into two parts Phoenicia became Byzantine and Beirut held its fame for the teaching of the law. It offered the Emperor Justinian (527-565), for the writing of its code, two eminent jurisconsults: Dorothy and Anatolios. Hence, in ancient history, thinkers and schools illustrated the Lebanon's patrimony: Cosmogonia, Sanchoniaton; in philosophy: Zenon od Citium, Philon of Byblos, Porphyre and Jambic; in poetry: Antipater of Sidon; as for the jurists: Ulpien, Papinien, Dorothy and Anatolius.

Around the middle of the VIth century, very strong earthquakes hit and destroyed Beirut and other cities.