an ancient and important city of Phoenicia, is situated on a little promontory which juts out into the Mediterranean, in Lat. 33° 34' N., and Long. 35° 22' E. from Greenwich. Josephus states that Sidonius, the eldest son of Canaan, built a city which the Greeks called Sidon. This statement accords with the language of Scripture, which, though it does not expressly say, yet it plainly implies that the city was founded by Canaan's son (Joseph. Anti. i. 6. 2; Gen. x. 15, 19). It is worthy of remark, however, that the name is descriptive of the site. The word signifies "fishing," and the position of the town on a coast abounding in fish would seem to indicate that this circumstance had suggested the appellation. In fact, Justin affirms that the name was derived from the peculiarity of the site,—"Conditæ ibi urbe quam a piscium ubertate Sidona appellaverunt, nam pisces Phœnices Sidon vocant" (18.3). It is also remarkable, that we find a like correspondence between the names of others of the early patriarchs and the physical character of the countries they colonized; Aram, for example, and Canaan, the former signifying a "plateau," or "high region," and the latter a "lowland." This could not have been accidental. But we are by no means justified in adopting the theory of Mr Kennicott, which Professor Stanley has indorsed (Sinai and Pal. 267), that Sidon is called the eldest born of Canaan, figuratively as being the oldest and most important city of the Canaanites. The fact may be satisfactorily explained in one of two ways. Either the names were given to the Patriarchs in prophetic allusion to their subsequent history, as in the case of Abraham; or they were adopted by them after taking possession of their selected territories. When the Israelites conquered Palestine, their historians applied to Sidon the term "Great;" in allusion, doubtless, to its strength and populousness (Josh. xi. 8).

The plain of Phoenicia, at Sidon, is a little more than a Topogmille in breadth, and is covered with luxuriant gardens and orchards of the choicest fruits. The ridge of Lebanon antequin rises abruptly over it, its rocky sides here and there diversified by terraced vineyards and mulberry plantations. The plain is flat and low; but near the coast-line rises a little hill, a spur from which shoots out a few hundred yards into the sea in a south-western direction. On the northern slope of the promontory thus formed, stands the old city of Sidon. The hill behind on the south is crowned by the citadel—a heavy square tower built by Louis IX., in 1253, and half ruined by the fire of the British fleet under Commodore Napier in 1841. A substantial modern wall, running across the peninsula from sea to sea, defends the town on the land side. The streets are of the usual eastern type, narrow and crooked, encumbered with dirt and rubbish; the houses, however, are large, and some of them even elegant, especially those built on the wall overlooking the lovely plain. Within the town are six great khans or caravanserais, which owe their origin to the enterprise of Fakir ed-Din. They are quadrangular structures, with courts in the centre, and ranges of small cell-like chambers all round, to serve as stores for merchandise, and lodgings for merchants. The largest of them formerly belonged to the French consulate and factory. The ancient architectural remains in the town are few and insignificant. None of the buildings are of an earlier date than the crusades. Some marble and granite columns are here and there seen in the modern walls and houses, and there are also a few fragments of Mosaic pavement remaining.

The ancient harbour was formed by three irregular ridges of rocks, which run northward from the promontory parallel to the coast line. They are partly under water and partly above it; and upon them may be seen some massive fragments of ancient masonry. Old writers mention two harbours, an outer and an inner, the latter being enclosed. Tattius describes them with some minuteness. Scylax also speaks of the closed port of Sidon. The position of the two can be easily traced. The outer harbour lay towards the west, extending from near the apex of the promontory northwards, and defended by a ridge of rocks. The inner lay in the curve of the bay, between the former and the shore. On an isolated rock, some distance from the beach, stand the picturesque ruins of a crusader's castle. It is connected with the town by a long causeway sup- ported upon nine arches. This causeway formed the division between the outer and the inner harbours.

On looking at the port and site of Sidon, one is especially struck with their diminutive size as compared with their ancient fame and commercial greatness. One of our ordinary ocean steamers would have completely filled the little harbour, though it was sufficient to contain a considerable fleet of such vessels as the ancients possessed. In the seventeenth century it was blocked up by Fakhr ed-Din, and now it is only accessible to small boats, while the open roadstead on the north is extremely dangerous.

On the east of the town, at the base of the mountains, are many rock-tombs of somewhat singular form and character. In places they are hewn out in tiers along the face of the cliff, and have stairs cut in the rock leading up to them. Their internal arrangements, like many of those in Petra, resemble houses for the living more than tombs for the dead. In various parts of the adjoining plain sepulchral caves have been found. In January 1855, one was accidentally opened at a spot about a mile S.E. of the city; and in it was discovered one of the most beautiful and interesting Phoenician monuments in existence. It is a sarcophagus of black marble, the lid of which is hewn in the form of a mummy, with the face bare. Upon the upper part of the lid is a perfect Phoenician inscription in twenty-two lines, and on the head of the sarcophagus itself is another almost as long. These record the fact, that the body of a certain Esthmonasar, king of Sidon, was once entombed within it. It is now in the Louvre at Paris. A short time previously, a vase was dug up in a field near Sidon, containing a large number of gold coins, chiefly of the times of Philip and Alexander the Great. There is scarcely a doubt that a rich harvest of Phoenician antiquities awaits the labours of some diligent excavator round the sites of Sidon and Tyre.

Sidon is justly celebrated as the most ancient, and one of the most enterprising, commercial capitals in the world; but its early proficiency in science, art, and manufacture, perhaps entitles it still more to the admiration of mankind. Herodotus begins his history with these words:—"The Phoenicians, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythrean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean, and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria. They landed at many places on the coast, and among the rest at Argos." From this little harbour of Sidon, in all probability, went out the first ship that crossed the Mediterranean. The enterprise of the Phoenicians thus supplied the link to connect the civilized east with the barbarous west, and initiated a system which has raised Europe to its present state of intellectual, moral, and commercial greatness. The skill of the Sidonians in the science of navigation is celebrated by Ezekiel (xxvii. 8), and by the earliest classic writers. They first discovered the pole-star, and directed their ships by it; the constellation of the Little Bear was hence called Phoenice. They studied astronomy, and applied it in practice to navigation. (Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 233, sq.)

The art of making glass was known and practised in Sidon at a very early period. The ancients ascribe its discovery to accident; but the probability is, that the Sidonians got it from Egypt, where we find representations of the process in tombs 3500 years old. They obtained their silicious sand from the banks of the River Belus, in the Bay of Acre, and their soda from Egypt. From the words of Pliny it appears, that they knew the use of the blow-pipe, the lathe, and the graver; and they even made mirrors of glass (36. 26). Herodotus describes a pillar of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night, as one of the most striking ornaments of the temple of Hercules at Tyre (ii. 44). It was probably of coloured glass, hollow, and lighted up by a lamp within. The writer has seen small glass-bottles of a beautiful emerald green, which were taken from Phoenician tombs near Beyrouth.

In the Homeric age, the choicest works of art were ascribed to the Sidonians. He tells us that their gems, their chains and ornaments of gold, captivated the hearts of the Greek maidens (Odysseus 15). The vase of silver which Achilles offered as a prize at the funeral games of Patroclus, was a work of the "skillful Sidonians;" the bowl of silver with edges of gold, presented by Menelaus to Telemachus, was a gift from the king of Sidon; and the gorgeous robe offered by the Trojan matrons to the goddess Minerva, was the work of Sidonian women (II. 23. 743; Od. 4. 618; II. 6. 288). The Sidonians were also celebrated for their bronze castings, and their ornaments of brass; and, doubtless, from them the Tyrians obtained the knowledge of an art in which they afterwards excelled.

Of the origin of Sidon nothing is known beyond what is history. told us by Josephus, that the city was founded by the oldest son of Canaan. It may be fairly ranked among the most ancient cities in the world, and were its historic annals complete, they would embrace a period of full 4000 years. From the direct statement of Herodotus, and the incidental notices in the Bible and Homer, it appears that the inhabitants began, almost immediately after their settlement, to engage in commerce with foreign nations. Sidon was better known to the early Greeks than any other city of Phoenicia. It alone is mentioned by Homer, and his statements regarding it would seem to point back to a period, traditional if not historic, when it was the capital, and in fact the representative, of Phoenicia. Its ships then visited the isles of Greece, and the various ports along the shores of the Mediterranean, carrying the rich manufactures of the city to every market, and plundering and pillaging wherever opportunity offered.

About the twelfth century B.C., Sidon was attacked, and apparently captured by the king of Ascalon; on that occasion a large body of the inhabitants fled in their ships, and took refuge in the secure island of Tyre, where Justin represents them as founding a city (18. 3). Tyre had existed long before that time; but it is probable that after the arrival of the Sidonian refugees it suddenly rose to eminence, and became the capital of Phoenicia, while the power and influence of the more ancient Sidon decreased. From this period till B.C. 880, the history of Sidon is unknown. A recently deciphered Assyrian inscription shows that it was then, with a great part of Phoenicia, subdued by a certain Shalmanu-bar, king of Nineveh (Rawlinson's Herod. i. 463). From this time onwards, if we are to believe the self-laudatory records on the monuments of Nineveh, the Assyrian monarchs were the virtual rulers of the Phoenician cities. Josephus states, on the authority of Menander, that Sidon was captured by Shalmaneser about B.C. 728 (Antiq. 9. 14. 2); but as the historic tablets of Koyunjik describe an expedition of Sennacherib, in which he captured Sidon, banished Luliya, its king, and gave his throne to another, it has been supposed that this is the event referred to by Menander (Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 476). During the rule of the Babylonians and Persians in Western Asia, Sidon had no separate history. In the year B.C. 332, it headed the cities of Phoenicia in a revolt against Persia. Its inhabitants destroyed the residence of the Satrap, murdered many of his officers, and then collecting a large fleet, prepared for a vigorous defence. The valour of the Sidonians and their allies served for a time to keep the Persian forces at bay. At length, however, a large army was collected, and the king of Sidon fearing the result, basely resolved to save himself by betraying his country. One hundred Sidonian nobles were beguiled into the enemy's camp and murdered. Persian soldiers were afterwards admitted into the city. The wretched in- habituants, having previously burned their fleet, that none might be able to flee from the common danger, now in despair shut up themselves, their wives, their children, and their treasures in their houses, set them on fire, and perished together in the flames (Mela, i. 12). The authors of this tragedy did not escape unpunished. The traitor king died by his own hand; and when, a few years afterwards, Alexander invaded the country, the Sidonians received him with open arms, and thus deprived Persia of the flower of her navy.

During the period which intervened between the death of Alexander and the Roman conquest of Syria (B.C. 323-64), Sidon sometimes owed the sway of the Seleucid, sometimes of the Ptolemies, as the fortunes of war favoured one or other; but it still contrived to retain much of its commercial prosperity. Under the Romans this state of affairs was not changed. The city, though subject to a foreign power, was ruled by native princes, and enjoyed great freedom (Joseph. Ant. 15. 4. 1). The inhabitants now found both time and ample field in which to prosecute their favourite studies of navigation, astronomy, and geography (Strabo, xvii). Their manufactures of glass, and their works of art, were encouraged by the paternal government of Rome. In the sixth century, when Beyrouth was destroyed by an earthquake, the celebrated school of law and philosophy, which had long flourished there, was removed to Sidon.

When the Crusaders invaded Syria, Sidon was still a large and flourishing city. It was invested by the Christian army in A.D. 1108; but the inhabitants purchased a short respite by a large payment of gold. Three years afterwards it was captured by Baldwin. After the fatal battle of Hattin, Sidon fell into the hands of the Saracens, and its fortifications were dismantled; and when, in 1197, the Christians again entered it, they stabled their horses in its splendid saloons, and used their cedar ornaments for firewood. The city was finally abandoned by the Christians in 1291. In the fifteenth century it had somewhat revived, though it was not till the seventeenth century that it attained that degree of comparative prosperity it still continues to enjoy. In the beginning of this century, Fakhr ed-Din, a warlike and talented Druze prince, having got possession of the towns along the Syrian coast, built a palace at Sidon, encouraged commerce, and contributed greatly to develop the resources of the surrounding country. Unfortunately he was in a state of rebellion against the Sultan of Turkey, and in order to prevent the Ottoman fleet from approaching the city, he filled up the harbour with stones and rubbish. "Professing to be himself descended from French ancestors, he treated the Christians in his dominions with great equity, especially the Franks, granting privileges and immunities to the Latin convents, and encouraging the commerce of the French, which had now extended itself to these shores. In A.D. 1658, on the establishment of a new house at Marseilles for trading to Saida, one of its partners was appointed consul at the latter place, and D'Arvieux, a relative, repaired thither, where he continued chiefly to reside till A.D. 1655. To him we are indebted for a minute account of the city as it then was, and of the state of the French trade. At that period the French were the only nation who took part in the commerce of Sidon and the vicinity. Their trade had become so extensive, and so firmly established as to bring annually 200,000 crowns into the coffers of the Grand Seigneur. Sidon was the central point, and traded directly with the Druzes; but the merchants established there had factors in Ramlat, Akka, Beyrouth, Tripolis, and sometimes Tyre, who purchased up the products of the country and transmitted them to Sidon, whence they were shipped to Marseilles. The articles purchased and exported by the French were cotton, both raw and spun, silk, rice, mungalls, ashes from the desert, bird-lime, senna, and a few other drugs. Hitherto these had been paid for in money, but about this time the French began to import various articles in return" (Robinson's Biblical Researches, ii. 483).

For more than a century and a half the French continued to monopolize the whole trade of Sidon, which was then the principal port of Damascus. At length in 1791, the notorious Jezzar Pasha drove them from the city, and since that period its trade has continued steadily to decline. At present the tide of commerce has turned to Beyrouth, and Sidon is rarely visited by a foreign vessel. The population of the modern town numbers about 5000 souls, of whom 300 are Mohammedans, 600 Jews, and the remainder Catholic and Maronite Christians.