modern Jbail or Jubayl
Ancient coastal city, eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Located north of Beirut , Leb., the site was occupied by at least the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age); extensive settlement developed during the 4th millennium BC. As the chief harbour for the export of cedar to Egypt, it was a great trading centre. Papyrus, an early writing surface produced in Egypt, received its original Greek name, byblos , from its export to the Aegean through the city; the English word Bible means essentially "the (papyrus) book." Almost all known early Phoenician inscriptions, most from the 10th century BC, come from Byblos. By that time Tyre had become the preeminent city in Phoenicia, and, though Byblos continued to flourish into Roman times, it never recovered its former supremacy.