The main Phoenician city.

Among all the cities of Phenicia, the city of Sidon stands alone. Its settlement dates back to the Stone Age. There they found traces of the Acheulean culture and macrolithic artifacts from the Neolithic period. In the 12th century BC, during the bronze collapse, it was ravaged by the Philistines – the peoples of the sea, but was rebuilt and remained the main city of Phenicia until the destruction of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon in 676. The goddess Astarte, Eshmun and Baal-Sidon were worshiped in the city, as it was written on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, which was found in the middle of the 19th century.