Our thematic selections : Byblos

Byblos is the ancient Greek name given to the Lebanese city of Jbeil, a port located a few kilometers north of Beirut.

This site has been the focus of continuous human activity for seven millennia, and bears the vestiges of the many civilizations and religions that have succeeded and intermingled there: Canaanite, Mesopotamian, Phoenician, Egyptian, Christian, Ottoman...

Does the word Byblos come from the Greek word for papyrus, an Egyptian commodity transiting through this port on its way to the Mediterranean basin?

Or does it come from the name of the goddess Byblis, who was transformed into a fountain and seems to have been confused with other female goddesses celebrated in this place, such as Baalat, Astarte or Isis?

The great archaeologist Maurice Dunand was instrumental in uncovering the incomparable riches of the Byblos site, to which the IMA is dedicating its next exhibition.