** A similar usage was found in later times in the countries
     colonised by or subjected to the influence of the
     Phoenicians, especially in Cyprus.

Berytus shared with Byblos the glory of having had El for its founder.* The road which connects these two cities makes a lengthy detour in its course along the coast, having to cross numberless ravines and rocky summits:  before reaching Palai-Byblos, it passes over a headland by a series of steps cut into the rock, forming a kind of “ladder” similar to that which is encountered lower down, between Acre and the plains of Tyre.

     * The name Berytus was found by Hincks in the Egyptian texts
     under the form.  Birutu, Beirutu; it occurs frequently in the
     Tel el-Amarna tablets.

The river Lykos runs like a kind of natural fosse along the base of this steep headland.  It forms at the present time a torrent, fed by the melting snows of Mount Sannin, and is entirely unnavigable.  It was better circumstanced formerly in this respect, and even in the early years of the Boman conquest, sailors from Arvad (Arados) were accustomed to sail up it as far as one of the passes of the lower Lebanon, leading into Cole-Syria.  Berytus was installed at the base of a great headland which stands out boldly into the sea, and forms the most striking promontory to be met with in these regions from Carmel to the vicinity of Arvad.  The port is nothing but an open creek with a petty roadstead, but it has the advantage of a good supply of fresh water, which pours down from the numerous springs to which it is indebted for its name.* According to ancient legends, it was given by El to one of his offspring called Poseidon by the Greeks.

* The name Beyrut has been often derived from a Phconician word signifying cypress, and which may have been applied to the pine tree.  The Phoenicians themselves derived it from Bir, “wells.”

Adonis desired to take possession of it, but was frustrated in the attempt, and the maritime Baal secured the permanence of his rule by marrying one of his sisters—­the Baalat-Beyrut who is represented as a nymph on Graeco-Roman coins.* The rule of the city extended as far as the banks of the Tamur, and an old legend narrates that its patron fought in ancient times with the deity of that river, hurling stones at him to prevent his becoming master of the land to the north.  The bar formed of shingle and the dunes which contract the entrance were regarded as evidences of this conflict.**

     * The poet Nonnus has preserved a highly embellished account
     of this rivalry, where Adonis is called Dionysos.