However that may have been, in historical
times it ranked as a holy place, the religious capital of the
country, the Mecca or Jerusalem of the Phoenicians. The city stood
on a height beside the sea, and contained a great sanctuary of
Astarte, where in the midst of a spacious open court, surrounded by
cloisters and approached from below by staircases, rose a tall cone
or obelisk, the holy image of the goddess. In this sanctuary the
rites of Adonis were celebrated. Indeed the whole city was sacred to
him, and the river Nahr Ibrahim, which falls into the sea a little
to the south of Byblus, bore in antiquity the name of Adonis. This
was the kingdom of Cinyras. From the earliest to the latest times
the city appears to have been ruled by kings, assisted perhaps by a
senate or council of elders.
The last king of Byblus bore the ancient name of Cinyras, and was
beheaded by Pompey the Great for his tyrannous excesses. His
legendary namesake Cinyras is said to have founded a sanctuary of
Aphrodite, that is, of Astarte, at a place on Mount Lebanon, distant
a day's journey from the capital.
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