Ancient discovery in Tyre revives Lebanon’s rich history

In southern Lebanon, the city of Tyre, also known as Sour in Arabic, has once again revealed one of its ancient treasures. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, its columns facing the sea and other ancient remains are a reminder of the many millennia of Phoenicians, Greeks, Egyptians and other great civilizations in Lebanon. 

 

This time, a team of Lebanese, Polish and Spanish archaeologists discovered what seems to be a 2000 year old Roman building. According to Francisco Núñez, an archaeologist from the Polish Center for Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, and who is in charge of the excavations at the ancient site of Tyre, the building his team discovered is decorated with a representation of the goddess Isis and Horus, two major figures of the ancient Egyptian civilization. According to their first analysis, the archaeologists believe that this is yet a Roman place of worship, in a part of the site where religious monuments abound.

A discovery that confirms the status of Lebanon in the region

 

This Roman temple, adorned with a prominent figure of ancient Egypt and found on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, is further evidence of the extent of ancient Mediterranean civilizations in the region, and especially in Lebanon. In the north of the country, the city of Baalbek (3000 B.C.) and its grandiose ruins are the most striking testimony to the importance that the Land of the Cedars had in the eyes of the Greeks and Romans. Along the coast, Byblos, one of the oldest cities in the world (it was already inhabited more than 9000 years ago!), is home to traces of the Byzantine, Greek, Phoenician, and even Neolithic eras!

From northern to southern Lebanon, and after this discovery, it seems undeniable that this small country of the Middle-East abounds in an essential historical heritage for the Mediterranean region.