=The Land.=—­Phoenicia is the narrow strip of country one hundred and fifty miles long by twenty-four to thirty wide, shut in between the sea of Syria and the high range of Lebanon.  It is a succession of narrow valleys and ravines confined by abrupt hills which descend towards the sea; little torrents formed by the snows or rain-storms course through these in the early spring; in summer no water remains except in wells and cisterns.  The mountains in this quarter were always covered with trees; at the summit were the renowned cedars of Lebanon, on the ridges, pines and cypresses; while lower yet palms grew even to the sea-shore.  In the valleys flourished the olive, the vine, the fig, and the pomegranate.

=The Cities.=—­At intervals along the rocky coast promontories or islands formed natural harbors.  On these the Phoenicians had founded their cities; Tyre and Arad were each built on a small island.  The people housed themselves in dwellings six to eight stories in height.  Fresh water was ferried over in ships.  The other cities, Gebel, Beirut, and Sidon arose on the mainland.  The soil was inadequate to support these swarms of men, and so the Phoenicians were before all else seamen and traders.

=Phoenician Ruins.=—­Not a book of the Phoenicians has come down to us, not even their sacred book.  The sites of their cities have been excavated.  But, in the words of the scholar sent to do this work, “Ruins are not preserved, especially in countries where people are not occupied with them,” and the Syrians are not much occupied with ruins.  They have violated the tombs to remove the jewels of the dead, have demolished edifices to secure stone for building purposes, and Mussulman hatred of chiseled figures has shattered the sculptures.[37] Very little is found beyond broken marble, cisterns, wine-presses cut in the rock and some sarcophagi hewn in rock.  All this debris gives us little information and we know very little more of the Phoenicians than Greek writers and Jewish prophets have taught us.

=Political Organization of the Phoenicians.=—­The Phoenicians never built an empire.  Each city had its little independent territory, its assemblies, its king, and its government.  For general state business each city sent delegates to Tyre, which from the thirteenth century B.C. was the principal city of Phoenicia.  The Phoenicians were not a military people, and so submitted themselves to all the conquerors—­Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians.  They fulfilled all their obligations to them in paying tribute.

=Tyre.=—­From the thirteenth century Tyre was the most notable of the cities.  Its island becoming too small to contain it, a new city was built on the coast opposite.  Tyrian merchants had founded colonies in every part of the Mediterranean, receiving silver from the mines of Spain and commodities from the entire ancient world.  The prophet Isaiah[38] calls these traders princes; Ezekiel[39] describes the caravans which came to them from all quarters.  It is Hiram, a king of Tyre, from whom Solomon asked workmen to build his palace and temple at Jerusalem.