For the past 15 years, archeologists
with the British Museum have been
digging in Sidon and uncovering neverbefore-
seen treasures in Lebanon. We, at
Lebanon Traveler, dug our own way into
the site
In 1998, the Directorate General of
Antiquities of Lebanon gave the British
Museum the authorization to excavate
on a land expropriated in the 1960’s by
Maurice Chehab then Director General of
Antiquities, for the purpose of research
and methodic excavation without the
pressures of developers. What is known,
as the “college site” project is one of the
most important urban excavations to
take place in Lebanon. It gives visitors
an overview of the historical continuity
of a city beginning at the end of the 4th
millennium B.C. through to the medieval
period, thus taking us back 5,000 years.
The city-state of Sidon, 30 km south
of Beirut, was one of the most
important urban centers of the ancient
Canaanite and Phoenician people.
However, like other places in modern
Lebanon, most of what we knew
of its history until now came from
contemporary Egyptian, Assyrian,
Babylonian and Greek records.
Until recently, a major obstacle to any
further in-depth research into the heart
of the ancient city, the essence of any
definitive knowledge, has been modern
Sidon, which covers whatever lies below.
Due to the propitious acquisition of
three downtown sites by the Lebanese
Directorate General of Antiquities in the
early 1960s, access to the ancient layers
of the city is now possible.
To date there have been 15 seasons of
excavation that uncovered for the first
time the history of one of Lebanon’s
major cities from the 4th millennium
B.C. right to the Abbasside period
and the role of this major harbor in
ancient international trade around the
Mediterranean. The site that was once
part of an ancient wall that surrounded
the city of Sidon in the Middle Ages
illustrates the historical continuity of a
city from the end of the 4th millennium
B.C. through the medieval period.
The hard work of the team uncovered a
coin dating back to the era of Abbasid
Caliph al-Mansour and a head made
of colored glass from the site. “We
are rewriting the history of Sidon and
shedding light on it.” said the British
Museum’s Claude Doumit Serhal, who
supervises excavation works: “The history
of Sidon represents the history of all
Lebanon, the history of the Mediterranean
… it is the history of people who stuck to
their land and did not abandon it over
thousands of years,” insisting on the
importance of the discoveries.
In an effort to share the discoveries with
the local and international communities,
an exhibition entitled “Sidon: Best
of 15 years” is planned. “We want to
give residents of Sidon an idea about
the objects that were found during
excavation works over the past 15 years in
the site. Of course we won’t display there
the 1,400 objects that we are preparing
to exhibit in the Sidon Museum (that
will be established in the future) but our
aim is to make the people of Sidon know
what happened over the past 5,000
years,” said Serhal.
WHAT TO READ
Organized by the Lebanese British Friends of the National Museum under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture – the Directorate General of Antiquities, “Sidon: Best of 15 years” will be located at the Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) in Sidon (Bouwebet el Fawqa) and will welcome visitors from September 3rd to November 3rd 2013.
DGA +961 7 722491
WHILE YOU ARE THERE
Crusader Castle +961 3 433 287
Debbane Palace and Museum
+961 7 720110
Khan El Franj +961 7 727 344
The Port
WHERE TO EAT
Resthouse Saida +961 7 722469
Abou Rami (falafel) +961 7 721907
WHERE TO STAY
Al Qualaa Hotel +961 7 734777
Hotel Yacoub +961 7 737733
Khan al-Franj Youth Hotel
+961 3 980603