* Arka is perhaps referred to in the tablets of Tel el- Amarna under the form Irkata or Irkat; it also appears in the Bible (Gen. x. 17) and in the Assyrian texts.  It is the Cassarea of classical geographers, which has now resumed its old Phoenician name of Tell-Arka.

** Sianu or Siani is mentioned in the Assyrian texts and in the Bible; Strabo knew it under the name of Sinna, and a village near Arka was called Sin or Syn as late as the XVth century.

     *** According to the Assyrian inscriptions, these were the
     names of the three towns which formed the Tripolis of
     Graeco-Roman times.

**** Botrys is the hellenized form of the name Bozruna or Bozrun, which appears on the tablets of Tel el-Amarna; the modern name, Butrun or Batrun, preserves the final letter which the Greeks had dropped.

Gublu, or—­as the Greeks named it—­Byblos,* prided itself on being the most ancient city in the world.  The god El had founded it at the dawning of time, on the flank of a hill which is visible from some distance out at sea.  A small bay, now filled up, made it an important shipping centre.  The temple stood on the top of the hill, a few fragments of its walls still serving to mark the site; it was, perhaps, identical with that of which we find the plan engraved on certain imperial coins.**

* Gublu or Gubli is the pronunciation indicated for this name in the Tel el-Amarna tablets; the Egyptians transcribed it Kupuna or Kupna by substituting n for l.  The Greek name Byblos was obtained from Gublu by substituting a b for the g.

** Renan carried out excavations in the hill of Kassubah which brought to light some remains of a Graeco-Roman temple:  he puts forward, subject to correction, the hypothesis which I have adopted above.

Two flights of steps led up to it from the lower quarters of the town, one of which gave access to a chapel in the Greek style, surmounted by a triangular pediment, and dating, at the earliest, from the time of the Seleucides; the other terminated in a long colonnade, belonging to the same period, added as a new facade to an earlier building, apparently in order to bring it abreast of more modern requirements.

[Illustration:  252.jpg]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Cabinet
     des Medailles.

The sanctuary which stands hidden behind this incongruous veneer is, as represented on the coins, in a very archaic style, and is by no means wanting in originality or dignity.  It consists of a vast rectangular court surrounded by cloisters.  At the point where lines drawn from the centres of the two doors seem to cross one another stands a conical stone mounted on a cube of masonry, which is the beth-el animated by the spirit of the god:  an open-work balustrade surrounds and protects it from the touch of the profane.  The building was perhaps not earlier than the Assyrian or Persian era, but in its general plan it evidently reproduced the arrangements of some former edifice.*