Sidon is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and has a rich and diverse history that spans over 6,000 years. The city's name has changed over time and has been known by various names, including Sidun, Saida, and Saïd. The earliest evidence of human settlement in the area dates back to the Neolithic period, around 4000 BCE.

Sidon was one of the most important Phoenician cities, and it may have been the oldest. From there and other ports, a great Mediterranean commercial empire was founded. Homer praised the skill of its craftsmen in producing glass, purple dyes, and its women's skill at the art of embroidery.

Feb 17, 2025 · Sidon, one of the oldest Phoenician cities, was founded in the 3rd millennium bce and became prosperous in the 2nd. It is frequently mentioned in the works of the Greek poet Homer and in the Old Testament; and it was ruled in turn by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, and the ...

May 21, 2024 · The Sidonians were the inhabitants of ancient Sidon, a seaport on the Mediterranean Sea in modern Lebanon. Those familiar with the Biblical text will recall that Sidon was an influential, wealthy Phoenician city when the kings of Israel and Judah ruled during the Iron Age. Yet Sidon was a significant site before this period, too.

Sep 2, 2009 · Along with the city of Tyre, Sidon was the most powerful city-state of ancient Phoenicia and first manufactured the purple dye which made Tyre famous and was so rare and expensive that the color purple became synonymous with royalty.

Old Sidon, named by the grandson of Noah, and styled Great Zidon by Joshua, is, perhaps, the oldest living city in the world, and claims the honour of being mentioned both in the book of Genesis and in the Homeric poems . . . .

From classical times onwards, many scholars have considered Sidon to be the most ancient and the most prominent of the Canaanite/Phoenician coastal cities. For some the arguments in favor of this view are firstly, the mention in the Old Testament of Sidon as “the first born of Canaan” and secondly, the peculiar usage of the term Sidon and ...

Jan 6, 2016 · Sidon is of immense antiquity, but few remains of the ancient city have survived the ravages of time and man. In the 19th century, treasure hunters made off with many of its most beautiful and important objects, some of which can now be seen in foreign museums.

Sep 20, 2021 · For the past 15 years, archeologists with the British Museum have been digging in Sidon and uncovering never before-seen treasures in Lebanon. We, at Lebanon Traveler, dug our own way into the site.

Sidon was the third great Phoenician city-state, rivaling Byblos and Tyre as a naval power. In Darius' time, towards the end of the 6th century B.C., it was the capital of the fifth Persian satrapy and a showplace of buildings and gardens.