Byblos

Byblos, also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, locally ; , , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited since 5000BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. During its history, Byblos was part of numerous civilisations, 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. Etymology 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 (BC) and as in the Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters to the 18th-dynasty pharaohs and IV. In the 1stmillenniumBC, its name appeared in Phoenician and Punic inscriptions as; in the Hebrew Bible as Geval; and in Syriac as. The name seems to derive from (, "well") and (, "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".